'■^ 


CITY  GOVERNMENT 
IN  EUROPE 


HOUSTON'S  INQUIRY  INTO 

Municipal  Organization  and  Administration  in  the  Princi- 
pal Cities  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany;  with  a 
Report  of  Findings  and  Recommendations  for 
Houston's   Guidance  in  Developing  a 
Great  Seaport  City  on  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico 


47972 

By 

FRANK  JPUTNJM 

Special  Commissioner  of  the  City  of  Houston 
to  the  Cities  of  Europe 


Published  by 
THE  CITY  OF  HOUSTON,  TEXAS 

191.1 


f 


THE   IDEA 

{Editorial,  The  Manufacturers  Record,  August,  1912) 

Mayor  Eice  and  the  City  Commissioners  of  Houston  have  done  a 
very  wise  thing.  Recognizing  that  Houston  is  to  be  a  big  city,  and 
that  in  its  development  many  problems  will  have  to  be  met,  they  have 
engaged  Mr.  Frank  Putnam  to  go  to  Germany  and  make  a  study  of 
the  leading  municipalities  of  that  country.  It  is  believed  that  Hous- 
ton can  leam  many  important  lessons  in  the  handling  of  municipal 
improvements  and  the  betterment  of  the  city  by  a  study  of  the  methods 
which  have  been  so  successful  in  many  of  the  most  progressive  cities  of 
Germany.  Every  city  in  the  country  could  well  afford  to  employ  a 
first-class  axpert  to  study  city  improvements  in  this  covmtry  and  abroad. 
In  this  way  the  mistakes  which  have  been  made  could  be  avoided  and 
the  successes  achieved  could  be  followed.  Houston  has  set  a  good 
example. 


FOREWORD 

In  this  l>ook  the  writer  makes  no  pretense  to  have  done  more  than 

afford  some  glimpses  of  municipal  organization  and  management  in 

some  of  the  chief  cities  of  Xorthern  Europe.     It  was  the  purpose  of 

the  city  government  of  Houston  to  learn  by  means  of  this  inquiry 

something  about  the  means  by  which  older  cities  have  acquired  good 

")   public  services  and  it  is  the  hope  of  the  writer  that  his  report,  in  the 

^    following  pages,  will  to  a  degree  serve  that  purpose.    He  has  learned, 

"^    in  brief,  these  main  facts : 

First — That  Houston's  location  with  reference  to  national  and 
international  trade  routes  insures  very  large  future  city  growth  at  this 
point  on  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Second — That  Houston,  in  order  to  afford  a  suitable  foundation  for 

private  enterprise  which  must  be  depended  upon  to  utilize  its  ad- 

,^  vantage  of  location,  must  through  its  city  government  expend  a  large 

^    amount  of  money  during  the  next  few  years  laying  city  foundations 

■^   and  perfecting  its  public  services. 

Third — That  (accepting  the  experience  of  older  cities  as  a  guide) 
the  only  way  the  City  of  Houston  can  get  the  money  with  which  to  do 
this  work  is  by  issuing  bonds  and  by  assessing  the  cost  of  improvements 
against  owners  of  abutting  property,  enhanced  in  value  by  the  making 
of  such  improvements. 

Fourth — That  (again  accepting  as  a  guide  the  experience  of  the 

"^-^    older  cities)  money  borrowed  by  bond  issues  should,  so  far  as  possible, 

v^  be  invested  in  revenue-producing  properties,  so  that  hereafter  a  sub- 

*    stantial  portion  of  the  cost  of  making  non-revenue-producing  improve- 

^-  ments  may  be  borne  by  the  surplus  revenues  of  public  properties  pro- 

-i   ducing  such  surplus. 

Fifth — That  any  changes  in  the  form  of  our  city  government  should 
be  directed  to  the  end  of  producing  more  certain  continuity  of  con- 
structive municipal  policies,  and  to  the  employment,  in  all  responsible 
positions,  of  technically  trained  men,  when  these  can  be  obtained. 

In  making  up  this  volume  I  have  placed  the  final  report  with 
summary  of  findings  and  recommendations  at  the  fore,  to  accommodate 
those  readers  wlio  want  a  mere  digest  of  the  work.  The  letters  sent 
home  each  week  for  pul)]ication  in  Houston  newspapers  are  given  sub- 
stantially as  first  written,  for  those  readers  who  may  wish  to  trace  the 
inquiry  in  details.  F.  P. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  I :    Eeport  of  the  City's  Special  Commissioner  to  the  Mayor 
and  City  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Houston. 

Chapter  II :    The  Ancient  City  of  Cork. 

Chapter  III :    The  Capital  of  Ireland. 

Chapter  IV :    Glasgow's  Municipal  Philosophy. 

Chapter  V :    Glasgow's  Municipally  Owned  Public  Utilities. 

Chapter  VI :    Glasgow's  Battle  With  the  Slum. 

Chapter  VII :    London,  the  World  Capital. 

Chapter  VIII :    The  International  Municipal  Congress  in  Dusseldorf , 

Chapter  IX  :    Hamburg  a  Proof  of  German  Initiative. 

Chapter  X :    Phases  of  Municipal  Administration  in  Hamburg. 

Chapter  XI :    Official  Statistics  of  Hamburg. 

Chapter  XII :    The  Land  Increment  Tax  in  Hamburg. 

Chapter  XIII :    Looking  Into  Houston's  Future. 

Chapter  XIV :    The  Appreciation  of  Art  in  the  German  Cities. 

Chapter  XV :    Facts  and  Figures  From  Hanover's  Government. 

Chapter  XVI :    Hanover's  Municipal  Kestaurants. 

Chapter  XVII :    Munich's  Model  Municipal  Reports. 

Chapter  XVIII :    German  Management  of  a  Difficult  Problem. 

Chapter  XIX  :    Dusseldorf,  "The  Sheffield  of  Germany." 

Chapter  XX  :    Berlin,  the  City  Magnificent. 

Chapter  XXI :    Latest  Official  Data  on  Berlin. 

Chapter  XXII :    Humanity  Moving  to  Towti. 

Chapter  XXIII :    Houston's  Inland  Harbor. 

Chapter  XXIV  :    An  Appreciation  of  tlie  Theme  :  Editorial  From  the 
Dallas-Galveston  Daily  News. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Eepoet  of  the  City's  Special  Commissioner  to  the  Mayok  and 
City  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Houston. 

Houston,  Texas,  January  20,  1913. 

To  the  Mayor  and  City  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Houston: 

Being  commissioned  by  you  for  the  City  of  Houston  to  spend  six 
months  studying  and  reporting  upon  the  organization  and  manage- 
ment of  the  public  works  and  governments  of  the  cities  of  Europe,  so 
far  as  the  task  could  be  covered  within  the  period  named,  and  with  a 
view  to  learning  lessons  from  the  experience  of  those  cities  which 
might  be  made  of  use  in  developing  the  public  works  of  Houston,  I 
undertook  the  work  on  August  7,  1912.  I  have  visited  Cork  and 
Dublin,  in  Ireland;  Sheffield  and  London,  in  England;  Paris,  in 
France,  and  most  of  the  larger  cities  of  Northern  and  Central  Ger- 
many, Under  your  orders  I  have  sent  you  twenty-one  letters  for 
publication  in  the  Sunday  newspapers  of  general  circulation  in  Hous- 
ton, in  each  letter  discussing  some  phase  of  municipal  organization  or 
management  in  one  or  more  of  the  cities  of  Europe.  Thus  the  larger 
portion  of  my  report  has  already  been  given  to  you  and  through  you 
to  the  people  of  Houston  by  way  of  the  newspapers.  I  submit  here  a 
brief  summary  of  my  findings,  with  some  recommendations : 

I  find  municipal  taxes  (levied  mostly  on  incomes),  in  the  cities 
which  I  visited,  to  run  25  to  100  per  cent  higher  than  in  Houston  and 
other  cities  of  Houston's  class  in  Texas. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Europe  which  I  visited  are  all  supplied  with 
complete  or  nearly  complete  systems  of  street  paving,  water,  drainage 
and  sanitary  sewers. 

I  find  them  as  a  rule  owning  their  gas  and  electric  light  works,  and 
many  of  them  owning  and  operating  also  their  street  railways.  I  find 
the  principle  of  municipal  ownership  and  operation  of  these  public 
utilities,  both  in  Great  Britain  and  in  Germany,  to  be  well  established, 
and  where  exceptions  to  this  rule  exist,  these  are  due  to  the  non- 
completion  of  contracts  entered  into  years  ago  between  the  private 
o\^Tiors  of  these  utilities  and  the  city  governments.  I  find  it  to  be  the 
settled  policy  of  tbe  cities  which  I  visited  steadily  to  extend  tlie  ])olicy 
of  munici])al  owTiership  and  operation  of  public  utilities  until  all  shall 
have  been  taken  over  by  the  cities.  I  find  the  leaders  in  the  popular 
demand  for  municipal  ovsTiership  and  operation  of  such  utilities  are 
not  there,  as  hero,  radical  politicians,  but  solid,  substantial,  conserva- 
tive men  of  affairs,  backed,  of  course,  by  the  majority  of  their  fellow 


citizens  of  all  groups  and  classes.  The  propriety  and  the  success  of 
municipal  ownership  and  operation  of  public  utilities  in  these  leading 
cities  of  Europe  is  not  any  longer  a  debatable  subject;  their  complete 
transference  from  private  to  public  ownership  is  apparently  only  a 
question  of  a  few  years. 

I  find  this  principle  of  municipal  ownership  and  control  of  public 
utilities  to  extend  to  and  include  the  municipal  ownership  and  control 
of  at  least  a  large  portion  of  dock  and  harbor  property.  In  the  German 
cities  the  municipalities  own  and  control  all  or  nearly  all  of  such 
property,  leasing  it  to  transportation  and  industrial  companies  at 
rentals  which  are  planned  to  enable  the  cities  to  pay  off  debt  incurred 
by  them  to  provide  harbors,  and  thereafter  to  turn  a  steadily  increasing 
flow  of  revenue  from  that  source  into  the  municipal  treasury. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Germany  (all  of  them  have  been  modernized  and 
enormously  increased  in  population  during  the  past  forty-two  years) 
have  issued  bonds  to  borrow  money  with  which  to  build  public  services, 
in  amounts  far  beyond  the  average  bonded  debt  incurred  by  American 
cities  for  such  purposes.  Of  especial  interest  to  Houston,  as  a  city 
which  hopes  to  become  one  of  the  great  harbor  cities  of  the  world,  I 
find  that  the  cities  of  Hamburg  and  Bremen,  the  chief  seaports  of 
Northern  Germany,  have  borrowed  enormous  sums  with  which  to 
create  and  equip  their  harbors.  Hamburg  (directly  and  through  a 
company  in  which  it  owns  a  stock  control)  during  the  past  thirty 
years  has  expended  $130,000,000  on  its  harbor.  Bremen  a  few 
years  ago  issued  bonds,  for  making  an  enlargement  of  its  harbor 
facilities,  amounting  to  $132  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  city-state;  this, 
of  course,  in  addition  to  a  bonded  debt  already  far  larger  than  that  of 
Houston  or  any  other  Texas  city.  Hamburg's  harbor,  situated  about 
seventy  miles  inland,  on  the  river  Elbe,  has  been  cut  out  of  a  meadow, 
exactly  as  Houston's  harbor,  about  fifty  miles  inland,  must  be  made,  if 
Houston's  ambition  to  become  a  great  seaport  city  is  to  be  realized. 
Inasmuch  as  Houston,  at  the  head  of  the  Houston-Galveston  sea-and- 
rail  shipping  district,  brings  tidewater  several  hundred  miles  nearer, 
for  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  United  States,  than  any  other  possible 
great  seaport,  I  am  convinced  Houston's  ambition  will  be  realized,  step 
by  step,  during  our  own  and  the  next  generation,  and  that  here  in  the 
Houston-Galveston  district  will  arise  one  of  the  world's  great  cities, 
rivaling  Hamburg,  San  Francisco,  Glasgow,  Boston  and  New  York. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Europe  which  I  visited  are  so  organized  as  to 
procure  that  continuity  of  constructive  policies  which  is  essential  to 
their  economical  development.  In  the  cities  of  Great  Britain,  as  a 
rule,  only  one-third  of  the  city  council  is  elected  each  year,  thus 
assuring  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  councillors  shall  be  familiar 
with  municipal  policies  and  pledged  to  their  continuance.  I  find  the 
administrative  officers  of  these  British  cities — clerk,  treasurer,  auditor, 
etc.,  are  installed  in  office  for  life,  the  theory  being  that  each  year  of 
their  added  experience  in  this  work  is  an  asset  to  the  city,  by  reason 
of  making  them  more  efficient  public  servants, 

10 


I  find  in  the  cities  of  Germany  that  this  purpose  to  prociire  con- 
tinuity of  constructive  policies  is  more  strongly  emphasized  than  in 
Great'  Britain,  and  that  city  management  in  the  German  cities  is  a 
profession,  ranking  with  the  most  honored  professions. 

I  find  that  the  taxpayers  of  German  cities,  and  a  few  other  citizens 
to  whom  for  special  service  of  one  kind  or  another  the  privilege  has 
been  awarded,  are  the  only  citizens  privileged  to  vote  for  members  of 
the  city  councils.  I  find  that  the  German  city  council  employs  a 
mayor,  who  can  best  be  described  as  a  general  manager  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  council,  acting  as  a  board  of  directors  for  the  people, 
and  that  under  civil  service  organization  the  mayor  and  city  council 
employ  all  other  city  officials,  from  top  to  bottom, 

I  find  that  mayors  of  German  cities  are  employed  precisely  as  presi- 
dents and  general  managers  of  American  railway  companies  and  other 
great  privately  owned  companies  are  employed,  namely,  upon  proved 
ability  to  perform  the  work.  These  German  mayors,  and  most  of  the 
other  higher  officials  of  German  cities,  are  all  not  only  men  of  the 
highest  technical  education,  but  must  have  proven  their  executive 
capacity  as  well  before  they  can  rise  to  the  rank  of  mayor-general- 
manager  of  any  considerable  town. 

I  find  that  German  cities  often  compete  for  the  services  of  men  who 
have  won  high  repute  as  mayors,  and  that  in  such  cases  the  city  which 
succeeds  in  hiring  the  man  sought  usually  ties  him  up  wnth  a  life 
contract,  in  order  to  prevent  some  other  city  from  taking  him  away 
with  an  offer  of  larger  salary. 

I  find  that  in  some  instances  the  mayors  of  German  cities  are  per- 
mitted to  add  to  their  incomes  by  acting  as  officials  or  consultants  of 
private  industrial  companies. 

In  the  cities  of  Prussia  mayors  are  employed  for  terms  of  twelve 
years',  but  it  is  well  understood  that  if  the  mayor  has  served  satisfac- 
torily during  his  term  he  will  be  re-employed,  unless  he  shall  in  the 
meantime  have  reached  the  retiring  age.  In  Munich  the  mayor  is 
employed  for  a  trial  term  of  three  years,  and  if  he  makes  good  he  is 
then  re-employed  for  life,  or  until  he  reaches  the  retiring  age. 

I  find  that  all  employes  of  German  cities  are  employed  for  stated 
long  terms  of  years,  with  the  understanding  that  good  work  will  insure 
retention  in  office  term  after  term  until  the  retiring  age  is  reached, 
when  all  shall  retire  on  pensions  sufficient  to  maintain  ihciu  as  long 
as  they  may  live. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany  making  a  stout 
effort  to  a})olish  crime  and  disease-breeding  slums,  both  by  enacting 
laws  which  require  private  owners  of  slum  tenements  to  remodel  them 
in  conformity  with  sanitary  science,  and,  when  this  cfi'ort  fails,  by  con- 
demning such  buildings  and  replacing  them  with  municipally  owned 
tenements,  which  are  rented  to  the  people  at  cost  plus  interest. 

1  find  it  to  he  the  settled  policy  of  the  leading  cities  of  both  nations 
to  extend  the  princij)le  f)f  municipal  nwnershij)  and  operation  not  only 
to    water,    light,    transportation    and    those    utilities    which    in    most 

11 


American  cities  are  privately  owned,  but  also  to  markets,  housing, 
playgrounds,  baths,  gymnasia  and  any  other  community  needs  which 
are  not  adequately  served  by  private  enterprise. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Germany  nearly  all  conducting  municipal  savings 
banks.  There  are  more  than  20,000,000  individual  deposits  in  these 
banks,  with  total  deposits  exceeding  $700,000,000.  Deposits  are 
guaranteed  by  the  municipalities. 

I  find  most  of  the  German  cities  owning  and  conducting  public  bath 
houses,  including  Turkish  baths,  in  which  the  citizens  get  good  service 
at  prices  ranging  from  20  to  40  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  such  service  in 
American  privately-owned  baths. 

I  find  the  cities  of  Great  Britain  and  Germany  conducting  labor 
exchanges  or  public  employment  agencies,  which  serve  employers  and 
men  seeking  work  at  low  cost  or  none,  thus  protecting  them  from 
extortionate  charges  and  fraud  often  inflicted  upon  American  working- 
men  seeking  employment  through  private  agencies. 

I  find  the  American  public  free  school  system  to  be,  in  theory  as  to 
all  youths,  and  in  practice  as  to  a  small  minority  of  our  youths,  more 
liberal,  more  fully  equipped,  and  more  democratic  in  spirit,  than  the 
free  public  schools  of  either  Great  Britain  or  Germany.  American 
public  schools,  giving  to  all  children  alike,  whether  of  rich  or  poor 
families,  identical  education,  free  to  all  whose  means  permit  them  to 
take  advantage  of  it,  from  primary  through  the  high  school  which 
prepares  them  for  college,  has  the  supreme  merit  of  being  the  world's 
most  conspicuously  successful  agency  for  asserting  the  natural  right 
of  all  human  beings  to  an  equality  of  opportunity.  Caste  and  class 
spirit  have  no  part  or  place  in  it.  Whatever  its  shortcomings,  it  is  still 
this  country's  noblest  single  contribution  to  human  civilization. 

In  Germany,  where  education  in  the  primary  or  common  schools,  up 
to  the  pupil's  fourteenth  year,  is  compulsory,  and  where  14,000,000 
children  below  fourteen  years  of  age  are  in  attendance,  tuition  is  free. 
It  is  possible,  in  my  opinion  probable,  that  the  Germans,  directing  the 
pupil's  attention  during  the  last  j'ear  or  two  of  this  primary  schooling 
toward  the  trade  or  craft  or  calling  which  he  seems  best  fit  for,  or  which 
is  most  available  for  him,  have  improved  upon  our  common  school 
system  devoted  wholly  or  mainly,  during  this  period  of  the  pupil's  life, 
to  text-book  learning.  The  so-called  continuation  schools  of  Germany, 
including  afternoon  sessions  three  days  a  week,  night  sessions  and 
Sunday  sessions,  aim  to  extend  the  primary  school  graduates'  knowledge 
of  the  craft,  trade  or  calling  in  which  they  have  enlisted  as  wage- 
earners,  and  in  these  schools,  too,  attendance  is  compulsory  up  to 
seventeen  years  of  age.  Employers  of  these  pupils  are  required  by  law 
to  allow  them  to  attend  the  afternoon  school  sessions. 

All  schools  in  Germany  are  under  state  supervision,  but  most  of 
them  are  conducted  by  municipalities  subject  to  such  supervision.  The 
cities  derive  a  considerable  portion  of  their  yearly  revenues  from  tuition 
fees  paid  for  pupils  in  the  higher  schools  and  colleges. 

12 


Summed  up,  it  can  be  said  that  the  cities  of  Germany  are  at  once 
the  youngest  (in  their  new  planning  and  organization),  and  the  most 
completely  equipped  and  beautiful  cities  in  Northern  Europe.  They 
have  got  these  advantages  because : 

(1)  The  Germans  were  the  first  people  to  perceive  that  the  migra- 
tion of  millions  of  village  and  farm  people  into  city  manufacturing 
centers,  following  the  invention  and  application  of  the  great  product- 
multiplying  machines  of  modern  industry,  had  created  a  new  problem 
(the  problem  of  decently  and  healthfully  housing,  feeding,  entertaining 
and  governing  these  millions  ia  their  strange  new  environment),  and 
were  therefore  the  first  people  who  attempted  to  solve  that  problem, 
and  have  gone  much  farther  than  any  other  people  toward  a  solu- 
tion of  it. 

(2)  In  order  to  accomplish  the  end  desired,  the  German  cities 
have  borrowed  vastly  larger  amounts  of  money  on  bond  issues  than 
American  cities,  excepting  only  New  York. 

(3)  As  a  rule,  the  German  cities  have  invested  this  borrowed 
money,  or  most  of  it,  in  revenue-producing  properties — those  public 
utilities  which  theretofore  in  Germany  were,  and  today  in  American 
cities  still  are,  privately  owned  and  operated  for  private  profit. 

(4)  Taxes'  in  German  cities  were  and  are  high,  as  compared  with 
taxes  in  American  and  especially  in  Texas  cities,  on  the  principle  that 
it  is  cheaper  to  have  and  enjoy  the  foundation  decencies  of  city  life, 
at  any  price,  than  not  to  have  them;  and  most  public  improvements, 
not  of  a  revenue-producing  character,  have  been  paid  for  out  of  cur- 
rent revenues,  by  assessing  a  share  of  the  cost  against  abutting  prop- 
erty, and  from  the  surplus  earnings  of  the  revenue-producing  public 
services. 

(5)  The  general  welfare  being  made  paramount  to  private  profit 
in  serving  most  of  the  common  needs  in  the  modern  German  cities, 
city  planning,  to  meet  these  needs,  and  to  procure  for  each  inhabitant 
the  maximum  of  health,  comfort,  beauty  and  sane  entertainment  at  the 
minimum  cost,  as  well  as  to  provide  manufacturers  witli  the  best 
shij)ping  facilities  and  labor  supply  at  minimum  cost,  has  advanced  in 
Germany  beyond  other  nations.  It  has,  indeed,  become  one  of  the  pro- 
fessions, distinct  from  architecture  and  landscape  gardening,  both  of 
which  arts'  it  supplements  and  employs.  The  modern  cities  of  Ger- 
many have  been  consciously  planned,  by  their  governments  employing 
the  best  ol)tainable  professional  skill,  to  get  these  results;  and  their 
subserpient  and  future  growth  has  been  and  will  be  on  lines  hiid  down 
in  tliose  comprehensive  city  plans.  A  man  with  $10,000,000  could  not 
go  to  Dusseldorf,  the  chief  steel  and  iron  manufacturiiig  city  of 
Germany,  and  locate  a  factory  costing  that  amount  on  any  spot  where 
it  would  impair  the  health  or  the  property  rights  of  the  humblest 
citizen,  or  anywhere  else,  in  fact,  except  in  a  section  of  the  city  set 
apart  by  the  city  government  for  such  industries.  But  in  that  section 
tlie  investor  would  find  that  the  city  government  had  provided  him 
with  the  best  possible  rail  and  river  shipping  facilities,  and  adjacent 
to  an  industrial  pojiulalion,  decently  housed,  that  was  adajjted  to  his 

13 


need.  American  cities  expanding  under  pressure  of  the  desire  for 
private  profit,  like  Topsy,  "just  growed.'"'  So  far  as  I  can  learn,  the 
modernized  cities  of  Germany  are  the  only  ones  which  have  been 
consciously  and  intelligently  planned,  subordinating  private  profit, 
from  the  increment  in  land  values,  to  the  general  welfare.  Many  of 
the  German  cities,  and  the  imperial  government  as  well,  have  entered 
upon  the  policy  of  appropriating  for  the  public  treasuries  a  portion  of 
this  land  value  increment,  and  it  apparently  is  their  purpose  to  extend 
this  policy  imtil  it  covers  all  or  nearly  all  of  such  increment  socially 
created. 

(6)  The  German  cities  have  been  able  to  get  their  huge  municipal 
investments  intelligently  and  honestly  expended  (not  without  some 
notable  exceptions  in  both  respects,  however,  since  our  German  cousins 
are  human  like  the  rest  of  us),  because  they  have  from  the  beginning 
of  their  new  era  (dating  from  the  revival  which  followed  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  and  the  formation  of  the  German  Empire)  treated 
municipal  government  as  a  profession,  and  not,  in  the  American 
fashion,  as  a  cross  between  an  exciting  sport  and  a  scramble  for  the 
spoils  of  office.  The  Germans  have  been  able  to  procure  men  pro- 
fessionally trained,  to  fill  their  municipal  offices,  because  they  are  the 
best  educated  people,  in  the  middle  and  upper  levels,  in  Europe,  and 
because  they  recruit  the  talent  in  these  levels  with  a  steady,  small,  but 
constantly  increasing  stream  of  talent  rising  from  the  industrial  levels 
of  their  society.  Four  of  the  principal  German  cities  maintain  munici- 
pal service  colleges  in  connection  wuth  their  city  governments ;  in  these 
colleges  aspirants  for  city  positions,  high  or  low,  are  given  training  to 
fit  them  for  the  posts  to  which  they  aspire.  None  is  appointed  until 
he  has  completed  his  period  of  training  and  proven  his  efficiency. 

II. 

Six  years  ago,  viewing  Houston  for  the  first  time,  and  observing 
that  this  city  had  nearly  if  not  quite  a  hundred  excellent  churches, 
but  had  very  few  sewers,  less  than  one-half  the  necessary  city  water 
service  that  was  needed  for  people  then  here,  a  scant  one-eighth  of 
the  needed  pavement,  and  only  a  small  percentage  of  scattering  side- 
walks, I  gained  the  impression  that  while  the  people  of  Houston  were 
admirably  equipped  for  living  in  Heaven,  they  were  rather  poorly 
equipped  for  living  in  Houston. 

Since  that  day  an  energetic  effort  has  been  made  by  the  city  admin- 
istration to  perfect  our  arrangements  for  living  in  Houston.  Those 
years  have  witnessed  the  erection  of  numerous  fine  public  school  build- 
ings, the  rapid  extension  of  the  city  water  and  sanitary  sewer  systems, 
the  making  of  a  good  beginning  on  the  task  of  underground  drainage, 
the  laying  of  a  small  amount  of  permanent  pavement,  the  construction 
of  several  hundred  miles  of  sidewalks.  Those  years  witnessed,  too,  a 
long  and  finally  successful  (after  two  attempts  in  popular  elections) 
campaign  for  the  adoption,  here  in  Houston,  of  the  front-foot  paving 
plan,  the  plan  by  which  all  American  cities,  with  few  exceptions  and 
none  of  the  larger  size,  have  been  able  to  pave  their  streets.    Until  that 

14 


plan  was  adopted  by  vote  of  our  citizens,  it  was  impossible  for  Houston 
to  hope  to  pave  any  considerable  mileage  of  streets  under  the  old  plan, 
which  required  the  city  to  pay  the  whole  cost  of  paving. 

The  new  plan,  the  all-but-universally  used  American  plan,  having 
been  at  last  adopted  here,  and  the  people  having  recently  voted  a  few 
hundred  thousand  dollars  with  which  to  pay  the  city's  share  of  the 
cost  of  paving  laid  under  the  front-foot  system,  the  way  is  now,  for 
the  first  time  in  Houston's  history,  opened  for  really  paving  the  city. 
The  money  in  hand  will  make  a  beginning,  and  if  the  people  of  Hous- 
ton are  not  content  to  dwell  forever  in  the  mud,  if  they  want  good 
streets,  they  will  no  doubt  hereafter  from  time  to  time  vote  additional 
bonds  for  this  work,  or  will  submit  to  increased  taxation  for  it,  if  they 
do  not  approve  bond  issues  for  paving,  since  the  experience  of  the  old- 
world  cities  proves  there  is  no  other  way  to  get  paving  except  by 
paying  for  it. 

I  offer  the  following  recommendations,  not  with  the  hope  that  all 
or  any  of  them  will  be  immediately  adopted,  but  with  the  desire  that 
they  go  on  record  as  the  best  counsel  for  Houston  that  I  can  formulate 
after  twenty-five  years'  study  of  American  municipalities  and  a  brief, 
hasty  glance  over  the  organization  of  some  successful  old-world  cities : 

First — I  recommend  that  the  salary  of  the  mayor  of  Houston  be 
raised  from  $4,000  a  year  to  $10,000  a  year,  and  that  the  charter 
provision  requiring  candidates  for  this  office  to  have  been  o^\Tiers  of 
Houston  real  estate  for  two  years,  and  resident  property  taxpayers  five 
years,  be  eliminated,  in  order  that  the  ablest  men  for  the  place,  whether 
rich  or  poor,  may  feel  that  they  can  afford  to  become  candidates  for  it, 
and  to  occupy  the  office  without  fear  of  bankruptcy  if  elected.  The 
office  of  general  manager  of  a  corporation  touching  intimately  the  lives 
of  100,000  to  125,000  people  (soon  to  be  a  quarter  million)  and  which 
has  an  annual  turn-over  of  more  than  $2,000,000  (soon  to  be  $5,000,000 
or  $6,000,000),  is  at  lowest  calculation  a  $10,000-a-year  office,  and 
calls  for  a  $10,000-a-year  man  to  fill  it  acceptably. 

Second — I  recommend  that  the  term  of  office  of  the  mayor  of  Hous- 
ton be  extended  from  two  years  to  four,  or,  even  better,  to  six  years,  in 
order  that  the  city's  executive  head,  having  laid  down,  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  commissioners,  certain  far-reaching  constructive 
municipal  policies,  shall  be  free  for  a  reasonable  term  of  years  to 
develop  those  policies,  without  being,  as  now,  compelled  every  two 
years  to  fight  for  his  political  life  in  order  to  finish  anything  which  he 
hai3  begun. 

Third — I  recommend  tliat  the  four  city  commissioners  be  exempted 
from  the  charter  provision  which  now  requires  them  to  devote  their 
whole  time  to  city  service  and  to  have  no  other  business,  in  order  that 
these  offices  may  thus  be  opened  to  men  of  greatest  ability,  who  now 
are  unable  to  accept  service  on  the  commission  because  to  do  so  would 
force  thorn  to  abandon  their  private  business  or  profession. 

Fourth — I  recommend  that  the  term  of  office  of  the  four  city  com- 
missioners be  extended  from  two  to  four  years,  and  that  one  commis- 
sioner, and  one  only,  shall  be  elected  each  year,  in  order  that  there  may 

15 


at  all  times  be  in  the  city  government  a  majority,  three  members  of 
the  commission,  acquainted  with  municipal  policies  and  pledged  to 
their  continuance.  It  seems  to  me  we  assume  an  unnecessary  and  un- 
businesslike hazard  so  long  as  we  risk  electing  every  two  years  an  entire 
new  commission,  of  men  wholly  unacquainted  with  municipal  policies 
or  affairs. 

Fifth — I  recommend  that  the  four  city  commissioners  be  not  re- 
quired to  serve  as  the  active  heads  of  city  departments,  but  that  they 
act  as  a  board  of  directors  of  the  city  corporation,  together  with  the 
mayor,  outlining  main  policies;  execution  of  these  policies  to  be  com- 
mitted to  the  mayor's  hands,  and  he  held  by  the  board  of  directors  to  a 
strict  accounting  for  executive  management.  Active  heads  of  city 
departments  should  be  emploved,  on  merit,  during  good  behavior. 

Sixth — I  recommend  that  the  four  city  commissioners  be  paid  $20 
each  for  attendance  at  one  weekly  session  of  the  board,  or  $10  each 
(per  session)  for  attendance  on  two  weekly  sessions  of  the  board, 
instead  of  the  $2,400  yearly  salary  now  paid  commissioners  for  giving 
their  whole  time  to  the  city  service.  '' 

Seventh — I  recommend  that  the  initiative,  referendum  and  recall  be 
embodied  in  our  city  charter ;  the  recall  to  apply  to  all  elective  officers', 
and  to  be  available  upon  petition  for  a  recall  election  signed  by  not 
less  than  30  per  cent  of  the  number  of  voters  polled  at  the  last  preced- 
ing election.  Inasmuch  as  Houston,  with  17,000  men  of  voting  age, 
seldom  polls  as  many  as  6,500  votes  in  a  municipal  election,  it  seems 
to  me  that  30  per  cent  of  that  number,  or  less  than  2,000  voters  out  of 
17,000,  is  as  low  as  it  would  be  safe  to  set  the  figure  if  we  wish  to  keep 
"the  gun  behind  the  door,"  as  Governor  Wilson  puts  it,  and  at  the 
same  time  escape  the  temptation  to  use  it  hastily  and  without  due 
reflection.  San  Francisco  has  the  recall  at  10  per  cent;  Los  Angeles, 
20;  Seattle,  25;  Denver,  25;  Portland,  Ore.,  25;  Oakland,  15;  Birm- 
ingham, 3,000  voters;  Omaha,  30;  Lowell,  Mass.,  20;  Spokane,  20; 
Trenton,  25;  Lynn,  25;  Des  Moines,  25;  Lawrence,  25;  Tacoma,  25; 
Kansas  City,  Kan.,  25 ;  Duluth,  25 ;  St.  Joseph,  20. 

Eighth — That  as  speedily  as  possible  a  way  be  found  to  issue  city 
bonds  with  which  to  take  over  into  municipal  ownership  and  operation 
the  gas  and  electric  lighting  services  and  the  street  railway ;  and  in  the 
meantime — since  I  have  little  hope  that  this  desirable  change  will 
come  to  pass  in  the  near  future,  in  view  of  the  city's  absurdly  limited 
bond-borrowing  capacity  under  the  state  constitution — I  recommend 
that  the  city  borrow  every  obtainable  dollar,  by  bond  issues,  and  that  it 
gradually  advance  the  tax  rate,  to  obtain  funds  with  which  to  complete, 
at  the  earliest  possible  day,  our  drainage,  sanitary  sewer,  water  supply 
and  paving  systems. 

Xinth — I  recommend  that  the  management  of  the  public  free  schools 
of  Houston,  in  obedience  to  tlie  spirit  in  which  the  bond  money  was 
voted,  and  in  conformity  with  the  actual  needs  of  a  large  majority  of 
the  pupils,  shall  so  organize  the  work  of  the  public  high  schools,  and 
especially  of  the  junior  high  schools,  as  to  enable  all  pupils  who  want 
it  to  obtain  the  maximum  vocational  training  which  will  equip  them 

16 


when  graduated  to  become  wealth-producers  and  self-supporting  mem- 
bers of  society.  The  democratic  ideal  which  always  has  and  always 
should  animate  our  free  public  school  system  will  not,  in  my  opinion, 
be  impaired  if  our  schools,  like  our  other  public  services,  manifest  an 
increasing  tendency  to  prepare  their  beneficiaries  for  living  in  Houston 
instead  of  in  a  state  of  mind. 

Tenth — I  recommend  that  the  City  of  Houston  procure  authority 
from  the  legislature  of  Texas  to  obtain  ownership  of  ample  territory 
on  either  bank  of  the  ship  channel  to  provide  for  necessary  enlargement 
of  the  ship-turning  basin  and  to  prevent  monopolization  by  private 
interests  of  channel  frontage  which  will  ultimately  be  needed  to  accom- 
modate railroads,  warehouses,  factories  and  other  industrial  institu- 
tions. The  city  should  ovm.  at  least  5,000  acres  of  land,  lying  on  both 
sides  of  the  channel,  at  the  point  finally  chosen  for  a  harbor  site.  I 
recommend  as  such  site  the  point  where  Green's  bayou  enters  Buffalo 
bayou,  11>4  miles  in  an  air  line  from  Main  street  in  Houston.  I  further 
recommend,  in  this  connection,  that  the  city  at  the  proper  time  shall 
employ  the  best  obtainable  harbor  engineer,  to  make  a  thorough  tech- 
nical study  and  report  upon  the  best  European  harbors,  to  make  sure 
that  in  the  development  of  Houston's  harbor  and  wharfage  equipment, 
the  best  modem  services  shall  be  installed.  The  success  of  our  future 
harbor  will  depend  quite  as  much  upon  its  ability  to  handle  a  ton  of 
freight  at  minimum  cost  as  upon  our  extremely  favorable  location. 

Eleventh — I  recommend  that  the  city  government  create  a  city- 
planning  commission  for  Houston,  to  outline,  for  adoption  by  the  city 
government,  a  general  plan  providing  for  Houston's  future  growth,  as 
the  German  cities  have  done.  I  regard  this  as  by  long  odds  the  most 
vital  of  all  my  recommendations,  since  I  am  firmly  convinced,  having 
studied  Houston's  situation  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  great 
developed  inland  harbor  cities  of  Xorthem  Europe,  that  Houston  is 
certain  to  become  a  city  of  more  than  a  million  inhabitants  within 
fifty  years.  It  would  be  nothing  less  than  purblind  folly  for  the  gen- 
eration now  in  control  of  Houston's  destiny  to  neglect  to  make  pro- 
vision for  a  sane,  beautiful,  healthful,  economical  plan  of  future  city 
growth — now,  while  the  first  foundations  of  the  future  great  city  are 
being  laid.  The  city  of  Dusseklorf,  Germany,  the  cleanest,  best- 
housed,  most  healthful,  most  prosperous  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
cities  in  the  empire,  has  just  paid  out  something  over  $25,000  to 
competing  city-planners  whose  plans  for  the  city's  future  growth  were 
submitted  to  the  city  council  in  response  to  a  call  and  the  offer  of  large 
cash  prizes.  Houston's  city-planning  commission  should  be  composed 
of  our  most  enlightened  citizens,  serving  patriotically  without  pay  for 
prifle  in  their  privilege  of  helping  plan  a  city,  primarily  to  conserve  the 
health  and  comfort,  and  to  minister  to  the  sense  of  beauty,  of  genera- 
tions who,  coming  after  them,  will  honor  them  for  this  service.  This 
city-planning  commission  should  include  one  or  more  women  in  its 
membership.  It  should  be  provided  with  means  to  employ  the  best 
obtainable  professional  talent.    Inasmuch  as  its  work  would  probably 

17 


be  concluded  within  two  or  three  years,  it  could  not  be  held  to  conflict, 
as  to  its  duties,  with  the  existing  park  commission,  nor  with  any  other 
body  of  city  othcials.  Its  final  plan,  formed  after  hearing  from  all 
sections  of  the  present  city,  and  from  all  classes  and  groups  of  citizens, 
should  be  officially  adopted  by  the  city  government,  and  that  govern- 
ment should  insist  upon  a  strict  observance  of  the  plan  in  the  city's 
subsequent  industrial,  residential  and  park  and  playground  expansion. 

Twelfth — I  recommend  that  the  city  government  establish  a  munici- 
pal labor  agency  or  employment  bureau,  to  serve  Houston  employers 
and  Houston  workers  seeking  employment,  without  charge.  These 
agencies  have  made  good  in  the  old-world  cities ;  a  service  of  this  kind, 
which  can  be  rendered  better  by  the  city  than  by  private  individuals, 
and  which  rightly  managed  would  reduce  vagrancy  and  the  out-of-work 
problem  that  now  creates  a  heavy  charge  upon  the  public  treasury,  i& 
in  my  opinion  one  which  the  city  can  properly  establish. 

Thirteenth — I  recommend  that  the  city  government,  so  soon  as  may 
be  possible,  establish  and  operate  not  less  than  four  public  bath  houses 
in  different  portions  of  the  city;  one  of  the  four,  to  be  situated  in  or 
near  the  city  center,  to  provide  facilities  for  Turkish  baths.  This 
service  to  be  given  at  cost  plus  interest.  For  40  cents  in  a  municipal 
bath  house  in  any  of  the  larger  German  cities,  one  gets  an  excellent 
Turkish  bath;  for  two  or  three  cents  a  cold  tub  and  for  four  cents  a 
hot  tub,  with  soap,  towels  and  access  to  a  big  swimming  pool.  Days 
are  set  apart  in  these  public  bathing  establishments  for  women  and 
girls.  The  charges  are  calculated  to  pay  cost  of  operation.  Houston, 
a  sub-tropical  city  lacking  river  or  lake  bathing  facilities,  and  provided 
(and  certain  for  many  years  of  construction  turmoil,  under  any  ad- 
ministration, to  be  provided)  with  an  overplus  of  blowing  dirt  of  all 
sorts,  needs  adequate  public  bathing  facilities  as  badly  as  it  needs  any 
other  public  service  after  drinking  water,  which  we  have,  ample,  of  best 
quality  and  low  in  price. 

Fourteenth — I  recommend  that  the  city  government  establish  a 
municipal  slaughter  house,  and  require  that  all  animals  whose  flesh  is 
to  be  offered  for  sale  in  this  city  shall  be  slaughtered  therein,  subject 
to  competent  inspection  before  and  after  slaughtering,  to  guarantee  our 
citizens  against  the  sale  of  diseased  meats. 

Fifteenth — I  recommend  that  the  city  government  establish  public 
comfort  stations  at  various  places  in  the  city  center;  wanting  these 
stations,  no  city  is  fitly  equipped  to  entertain  large  crowds  of  visitors. 

My  services  for  six  months  cost  the  city  of  Houston  $1,800;  my 
expenses  during  the  service,  chargeable  to  the  city,  were  $2,700,  making 
the  total  cost  to  the  city  $4,500. 

The  city,  as  a  going  business  institution,  competing  with  hundreds 
of  other  ambitious  American  cities  for  new  population,  capital  and 
enterprises,  has  derived,  directly  from  this  mission,  the  best  kind  of 
newspaper  and  magazine  publicity,  in  a  volume  which  could  not  have 
been  bought  for  $500,000  in  cash. 

18 


I  submit  herewith  a  statement  of  my  expenses : 

EXPENSE  ACCOUNT  OF  FRANK  PUTNAM,  TRIP  TO  EUROPE  IN  SERVICE  OF 
CITY  OF  HOUSTON,  AUGUST  7,  1912,  TO  JANUARY  7,  1913. 

Cash  received  from  City  of  Houston,  account  expenses $2,700.00 


Spent  in  service  of  City  of  Houston,  for — 

Traiuportatian — Visiting  and  working  (to  procure  publicity 
for  Houston  and  to  obtain  information  concerning  mu- 
nicipal governments),  in  Kansas  City,  Mo.;  ^Yaterloo, 
Iowa ;  Chicago,  111. ;  Xew  York,  X.  Y. ;  Boston,  Mass. ; 
Cork  and  Dublin,  Ireland;  Glasgow,  Scotland;  Sheffield 
and  London,  England ;  Paris,  France,  and  the  principal 
cities  of  Germany,  including  charges  for  steamship,  rail- 
road, motor  boat,  carriage,  taxicab  and  other  conveyances, 
covering  15,600  miles $    870.05 

Entertainment — Hotel,  cafe,  restaurant,  theatre,  dining  cars, 
clubs,  and  social  functions  to  which,  as  Houston's  special 
commissioner,  I  was  invited,  and  in  entertaining  in  my 
turn  people  who  thus  aided  me  in  my  task  of  inquiry 1,036.15 

Service — Translators,  typists,  secretary,  couriers,  porters,  and 

gratuities  to  other  servants 437.40 

Purchases — Xecessitated  by  the  work  in  hand  and  the  exigen- 
cies of  travel :  books,  papers,  clothing,  postage,  pictures, 
maps,  printing,  cable  and  telegrams  and  other  incidentals.      356.40 

Total  amount  expended $2,700.00 

Learning  since  my  return  home  that  some  taxpayers  think  the  ex- 
penditure of  this  money  was  ill-advised,  or  wasteful,  I  insist  here  upon 
my  right  to  say  to  such  taxpayers,  if  there  be  any,  that  I  stand  ready 
on  their  demand,  and  on  presentation  by  them  of  a  properly  certificated 
voucher  from  the  city  tax  collector,  to  refund  to  each  his  pro  rata 
share  of  the  cost  of  the  undertaking.  For  five  years,  a  private  citizen, 
I  have  served  Houston  in  as  many  hours  daily  as  I  could  spare  from 
the  task  of  earning  a  living;  have  done  it  for  sporting  pride  in  the 
town  and  to  make  it  a  more  beautiful,  more  healthful  and  comfortable 
place  to  live  in.  The  only  reason  I  did  not  make  the  city  a  present  of 
this  trip  and  inquiry  was  because  I  could  not  afford  to  do  it.  Rather 
than  have  any  taxpayer  feel  I  have  wasted  a  penny  of  his  money,  I 
stand  ready  to  take  the  trifling  burden  off  his  hands  on  demand. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Frank  Putnam. 


19 


CHAPTER  11. 
The  Ancient  City  of  Cork. 

Cork,  Ireland. — It  seemed  desirable  that  one  who  had  undertaken 
the  task  of  extracting  precise  information,  official  in  character,  from 
the  managers  of  cities  in  several  European  countries,  should  first  kiss 
the  Blarney  Stone.  So,  instead  of  proceeding  direct  to  Liverpool,  as 
first  planned,  I  quit  the  Caronia  at  QueenstowTi  and  came  the  same 
day,  Saturday,  August  31,  to  Cork  by  rail. 

Sunday  morning,  however,  discovering  that  in  order  to  kiss  the 
stone  one  has  to  climb  by  a  winding  stone  stairway  120  feet  to  the  top 
of  an  ancient  tower  and  then  hang  down,  head  first,  on  the  outer 
wall  at  that  height,  ankles  in  the  grip  of  one  or  more  friends  who  lean 
backward  with  feet  braced,  I  decided  it  was  not  in  keeping  with  my 
personal  and  official  dignity  to  assume  such  a  position  for  such  a 
purpose,  and  stood  aside  for  more  reckless  individuals.  The  effect  of 
kissing  the  Blarney  Stone  was  exhibited  by  an  old  man  who  met  us  at 
the  entrance  to  the  castle  grounds. 

"How  long  have  you  lived  here  ?"  he  was  asked. 

"Sixty-four  years,"  he  replied. 

"And  have  you  ever  visited  America  ?" 

"No,  sir,  I  have  never  yet  breathed  the  air  of  freedom." 

Next  day,  at  city  hall,  Lord  Mayor  O'Shea  and  City  Clerk  McCarthy 
made  the  Houstonian  free  of  the  hall  and  the  city.  "I  think,"  said 
the  lord  mayor,  "we'd  better  be  sending  a  commissioner  to  Houston, 
to  learn  from  a  city  so  enterprising  that  it  seeks  facts  for  the  people's 
business  at  so  great  a  distance.  I  have  never  heard  of  anything  like 
it  before.  It's  a  fine  idea,  and  I  can  easier  believe  now  that  you  really 
have  a  great  city  in  the  making,  as  I've  been  told  often." 

Cork,  like  Houston,  was  rated  at  about  78,000  in  the  last  census, 
and  like  Houston  has  more  than  100,000,  including  its  overflow  popu- 
lation around  the  edges.  It  seemed  to  mo,  tlierefore,  to  afford  a  good 
opportunity  for  placing  the  municipal  development  of  a  young  Amer- 
ican city  in  contrast  with  that  of  a  very  old  European  city  of  aboiit 
the  same  size.  Cork,  like  Houston,  is  back  a  few  miles  from  the 
seacoast,  and  like  Houston  has  a  ship  channel  leading  inland  from  the 
coast  city  near  it.  Cork's  channel  is  the  River  Lee,  deepened  and 
improved  by  the  government  to  31  feet  at  low  tide. 

Houston  is  less  than  eighty  years  old.  Cork's  oldest  existing  char- 
ter was  granted  in  l^OO,  and  that  charter  was  in  ])art  an  extension  of 
powers  granted  in  earlier  charters  Father  Cashnian  of  Chicago,  here 
to  pay  his  thirty-seventh  annual  visit  to  his  old  mother,  four  miles 
from  Cork,  and  who  knows  the  history  of  Ireland  from  Cork  to  Belfast 

21 


in  detail,  told  me  the  Celts  had  a  vast  empire  reaching  from  the  Black 
Sea  to  the  Baltic  before  the  Christian  era,  and  possessed  a  high 
civilization  before  the  coming  of  8t.  Patrick  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  cen- 
tury, A.  D.  Cork  has  long  been  known  as  the  Athens  of  Ireland,  and 
even  more  than  Dublin  is  the  center  of  Nationalist  sentiment. 

Today  Cork  is  declining  while  Houston  advances.  But  Cork  is 
making  a  strong  effort  to  stay  her  decline,  and  is  doing  it  by  means  of 
vocational  education,  locally,  while  her  representatives  in  the  British 
parliament  fight  for  home  rule  for  Ireland  and  a  larger  measure  of 
local  self-government.  Cork  like  Houston  wants  new  industries,  to 
enlist  the  energies  and  spur  the  hope  of  her  people,  Cork,  following 
the  German  example,  has  beaten  Houston  to  the  establishment  of  a 
trade  school,  and  in  this  trade  school,  or  technical  school  as  it  is  called 
here,  I  find  perhaps  the  best  affirmative  lesson  which  Houston  can 
learn  from  the  ancient  metropolis  of  South  Ireland.  Beginnings  in 
technical  education — artistic  and  mechanical — were  made  in  Cork 
seven  years  ago,  in  three  scattered  buildings.  It  was  recognized  that, 
whoever  might  hold  the  reins  of  government,  the  economic  hope  of 
the  people  must  rest  upon  industrial  efficiency,  and  so  they  began 
breaking  away  from  the  exclusively  classical  ideal  of  education. 

The  three  scattered  schools  of  seven  years  ago  are  now  assembled  in 
one  large  building.  The  site  was  given  to  the  city  by  a  generous  citizen. 
The  nation  granted  a  yearly  allowance  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
school  and  confided  its  management,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
national  board  which  controls  mechanical  and  agricultural  education, 
to  a  committee  of  the  citizens  of  Cork.  The  committee  capitalized  the 
national  allowance  and  realized  a  lump  sum  of  approximately  $100,000, 
with  which  the  school  was  built  and  equipped.  It  has  been  in  opera- 
tion on  the  new  basis  one  year. 

This  school  was  intensely  interesting  to  me,  as  the  first  out  and  out 
trade  school  I  had  ever  seen.  Its  purpose  is  frankly  to  train  boys  and 
girls,  men  and  women,  for  the  skilled  trades.  Thus  far  it  has  con- 
fined its  appeal  to  youths  already  apprenticed  in  the  various  mechan- 
ical trades  in  Cork.  It  has  made  no  effort,  chiefly  for  want  of  space, 
to  call  in  and  give  a  complete  trade  education  from  the  ]>eginning  to 
youths  who  have  not  already  made  a  start  as  craftsmen.  The  labor 
unions  have  been  friendly  to  the  school;  they  are  represented  on  its 
managing  committee.  They  do  not  see  in  it  a  menace  to  the  stability 
of  wages,  so  much  as  a  promise  of  higher  wages  ultimately,  to  follow 
advanced  standards  of  skill  in  the  several  crafts.  They  are  far-seeing, 
these  Cork  unionists.  They  realize  that  with  the  increasing  com- 
plexity of  many  of  the  crafts  it  is  not  possible  for  a  craftsman  who  has 
learned  his  trade  in  the  old  way,  through  practice  alone,  and  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  scientific  principles  which  underlie  practice,  to  give  the 
best  service  or  demand  the  highest  pay.  Some  of  the  union  men  have 
objected  to  the  work  of  the  school,  but  most  of  them  have  thought 
for  their  sons  as  well  as  for  themselves.  They  realize,  as  we  in  America 
have  begun  to  realize,  that  the  old  plan  of  giving  all  children  the 
same  kind  and  amount  of  free  education — education  leading  not  to 

22 


the  useful  trades  but  to  the  overcrowded  professions — has  ceased  to 
meet  the  needs  of  an  increasingly  complex  civilization — the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  vast  machines  which  have  superseded  old-time  hand  tools, 
and  which  require  the  attendance  not  of  the  old-time  all-around  work- 
man but  of  highly  trained  specialists. 

Cork,  nearly  or  quite  1,000  years  old,  like  Houston,  less  than  80, 
has  suddenly  realized  the  vital  necessity  to  provide,  in  her  public 
free  schools,  the  kind  of  education  which  will  equip  public  school 
graduates  to  take  their  places  without  loss  of  time  in  the  established 
industries,  as  wealth-producers  and  self-supporting  members  of  society. 
Beyond  that,  Cork  like  Houston  realizes  that  in  order  to  acquire  new 
industries  she  must  create  in  her  own  citizenship  a  body  of  skilled 
workers,  competent  to  grasp  the  principles  of  the  new  machinery  of 
industry,  and  to  apply  them. 

Texas  timber  owners,  and  Houston  citizens  who  are  studying  the 
problem  of  paving  materials  there  at  home,  will  be  interested  to  know 
that  Cork  is  repaving  a  portion  of  St.  Patrick  street,  the  principal 
business  highwa}^,  with  creosoted  wood  blocks.  Granite  is  being  taken 
up  to  give  place  to  wood.  The  blocks  are  of  soft  pine  from  Norway, 
by  no  means  equal  in  durability  to  the  creosoted  cypress  blocks  pro- 
duced in  Southern  Texas.  But  they  are  deemed  so  great  an  improve- 
ment over  granite  (after  a  dozen  years  of  trial  in  other  streets),  for 
minimizing  noise  of  traffic,  for  cleanliness  and  in  other  ways,  that  the 
change  is  being  made  with  general  public  approval. 

The  Cork  corporation  owns  none  of  its  public  utilities  except  the 
water  works.  Street  railways  and  electric  light  plant  are  owned  by  a 
private  corporation,  which  manages  to  pay  4  or  5  per  cent  dividends 
on  its  capital izati(m,  of  which  one  to  one  and  one-half  per  cent  is 
earned  by  the  street  railways.  In  Cork  one  travels  from  end  to  end  of 
any  of  the  lines — a  maximum  distance  of  little  more  than  three  miles — 
for  two  cents  of  American  money ;  if  you  mean  to  make  the  round  trip, 
your  ticket  going  out  and  coming  back  will  cost  you  three  cents  of  our 
money,  or  one  pence  and  half-penny  of  English  copper.  There  are  no 
transfers  given  from  one  line  to  another,  and  there  is  very  little  de- 
mand for  them.  The  city  has  charter  authority  to  acquire  title  to  these 
utilities  and  operate  them,  but  does  not  deem  the  investment  an  at- 
tractive one,  rates  considered.  The  mass  of  the  peoi)le  of  Cork  are 
undeniably  very  poor;  naturally,  they  do  not  patronize  street  cars  so 
liberally  as  do  the  Americans,  few  of  whom,  in  or  around  Houston, 
know  what  actual  poverty  may  mean  to  its  victims.  The  dollar  not 
only  goes  much  farther  here  than  in  Texas,  but  it  is  a  lot  slower  making 
up  its  mind  to  start  at  all.  Considering  that  Ireland's  population  has' 
declined  over  4,()00,()()() — nearly  50  per  cent — in  70  years,  and  that 
most  of  those  wiif)  have  departed,  otherwise  than  by  death,  have  been 
th(!  strongest  and  most  daring,  Cork's  ability  to  hold  her  own  in  ])opu- 
lation,  and  her  courageous  attempt  to  remedy  her  case  by  applying  the 
doctrine  of  educational  efficiency  (while  never  ceasing  from  the  fight 
for  home  rule),  is  an  amazing  proof  of  the  ])eople's  extraordinary 
vitality  and  their  grip  upon  their  ancient  ideals. 

23 


So  much  for  the  official  side  of  the  case.  Now  for  just  a  paragraph  or 
two  dealing  with  the  human  side  of  the  picture.  Perhaps,  too,  it  has  a 
bearing  on  the  official  side.  At  any  rate,  it  points  the  moral  that  the 
city  which  neglects  to  appreciate  and  cherish  its  artists  is  overlooking 
a  good  money  bet,  and  that  is  something  we  can  all  understand.  Thus : 
Cork  is  a  Mecca  for  tourists  from  all  over  the  world,  and  I  am  told  a 
very  large  number  of  them — as  many,  probably,  as  come  to  kiss  the 
Blarney  Stone — are  drawn  here  to  see  the  church  in  whose  tower  are 
the  Bells  of  Shandon,  celebrated  in  Father  Front's  famous  poem. 

"All  day  long  and  every  day,"  said  the  old  man  who  showed  me 
through  the  church,  "people  come  here  from  all  over  the  world  to  see 
the  church  and  to  hear  the  bells.  Weekdays  I  play  jigs  on  the  bells, 
but  Sundays  (I  was  there  Sunday  afternoon)  we  play  only  hymns." 
Whereupon  he  played  "Lead,  Kindly  Light"  and  "Abide  With  Me." 
He  said  he  had  frequent  requests  for  these  hymns  from  American 
visitors.  These  were  the  favorite  hymns  of  the  late  President  Me- 
Kinley.  I  am  going  to  violate  official  tradition  by  quoting  the  poem 
here,  in  order  for  my  fellow  Texans  to  get  a  line  on  the  kind  of  talent 
we  ought  to  encourage  with  a  view  to  drawing  a  profitable  tourist  trade 
our  way  hereafter. 

THE  BELLS  OF  SHANDON, 

With  deep  affection  and  recollection 

I  often  think  of  the  Shandon  Bells, 
Whose  sounds  so  wild  would,  in  days  of  childhood, 

Fling  'round  my  cradle  their  magic  spells — 
On  this  I  ponder,  where'er  I  wander. 

And  thus  grow  fonder,  sweet  Cork,  of  thee; 
With  thy  bells  of  Shandon, 
That  sound  so  grand  on 
The  pleasant  waters  of  the  River  Lee. 

I  have  heard  bells  chiming  full  many  a  clime  in, 

Tolling  sublime  in  cathedral  shrine; 
While  at  a  glib  rate  brass  tongues  would  vibrate. 

But  all  their  music  spoke  naught  to  thine ; 
For  memory  dwelling  on  each  proud  swelling 
Of  thy  belfry  knelling  its  proud  notes  free, 
Made  the  bells  of  Shandon 
Sound  far  more  grand  on 
The  pleasant  waters  of  the  Eiver  Lee. 

I  have  heard  bells  tolling  "old  Adrian's  mole"  in. 

Their  thunders  rolling  from  the  Vatican, 
With  cymbals  glorious,  swinging  uproarious 

In  the  gorgeous  turrets  of  Xotre  Dame ; 

But  thy  sounds  were  sweeter  than  the  dome  of  Peter 

Flings  o'er  the  Tiber,  pealing  solemnlv. 

0  !  the  bells  of  Shandon 

Sound  far  more  grand  on 

The  pleasant  waters  of  the  River  Lee. 

24 


There's  a  bell  in  Moscow,  while  on  tower  and  kiosko, 

In  St.  Sophia  the  Turkman  gets, 
And  loud  in  air  calls  men  to  prayer 

From  the  tapering  summits  of  tall  minarets ; 
Such  empty  phantoms  I  freely  grant  them, 
But  there's  an  anthem  more  dear  to  me : 
It's  the  bells  of  Shandon, 
That  sound  so  grand  on 
The  pleasant  waters  of  the  River  Lee. 

And  while  we  stood  on  a  classic  stone  arch  bridge  above  the  dark 
flowing  waters  of  the  Eiver  Lee,  listening  to  the  bells  of  Shandon,  my 
friend,  Judge  O'jSTeil  of  Scranton,  Pa.,  who  was  lured  across  the  wide 
waters  to  hear  those  bells,  recited  the  poem  that  has  touched  the  hearts 
of  millions  and  which  is  now,  let  us  not  forget,  bringing  each  year 
thousands  of  perfectly  good  tourist  guineas  into  the  tills  of  the  inn- 
keepers and  shopkeepers  of  the  city  in  which  the  poet  was  born. 


26 


CHAPTER  III. 
The  Capital  of  Irelaxd. 

Dublin,  Ireland. — The  Irish  capital  is  another  city  which,  like  Cork 
and  Houston,  has  utilized  a  small  stream  to  give  it  an  inland  harbor. 
The  River  Liffey,  back  from  Dublin,  is  an  inconsiderable  stream.  In 
and  below  Dublin  to  the  sea  it  has  been  widened,  deepened  and  walled 
with  rock,  giving  the  city  a  broad  water  highway  traversed  by  seagoing 
ships  of  large  size. 

Dublin  has  a  half  million  people.  It  is  one  of  the  handsomest,  best- 
built  cities  that  I  have  seen.  Its  streets  are  broad  and  well  paved. 
Most  of  them  are  paved  with  granite  blocks.  Here  as  in  Cork  some  of 
the  do\\Tito^\Ti  streets  have  recently  been  repaved  with  creosoted  wood 
blocks;  indeed,  the  Shelbourne  Hotel,  the  city's  leading  caravansary, 
advertises  the  fact  that  the  streets  upon  which  it  fronts  have  been  re- 
paved  with  wood  blocks,  thus  procuring  more  quiet  for  its  guests. 
Drivers  praise  the  wood  block,  saying  it  doubles  the  working  life  of 
their  horses  (as  compared  with  the  granite  blocks),  and  the  taxicab 
men  tell  me  it  is  far  easier  on  tires. 

The  British  government  maintains  in  Ireland  forty-two  administra- 
tive boards,  each  charged  with  the  duty  of  governing  the  people  in  one 
way  or  another.  The  local  government  board  holds  a  check  on  munici- 
pal administration.  The  cities  of  Great  Britain  obtain  charters  from 
the  British  parliament.  The  powers  of  the  city  councils  elected  by 
the  people  of  the  cities  are  limited  and  very  strictly  defined.  The 
function  of  the  local  government  board  for  each  of  the  three  chief 
divisions  of  the  United  Kingdom — England  and  Wales,  Scotland  and 
Irehmd — is  to  see  to  it  that  city  councils  do  not  exceed  their  charter 
authority.  For  example:  a  Dublin  philanthropist  donated  to  the  city 
a  gallery  of  fine  arts.  The  city  council  accepted  the  gift  and  levied  a 
small  tax  to  maintain  the  gallery.  The  Irish  local  government  board's 
responsible  officer  cut  that  item  out  of  the  budget.  He  surcharged 
it  back  on  the  city  councillors  who  voted  the  tax  and  they  were  obliged 
to  pay  it  out  of  their  own  pockets.  The  local  government  board  man 
said  he  appreciated  the  usefulness  of  a  municii)al  gallery  of  fine  arts; 
he  wished  it  were  possible  for  him  to  approve  the  tax  for  its  main- 
tenance, but  since  the  city's  charter  contains  no  specific  reference  to 
tliat  subject  he  was  bound  to  strike  it  out  of  the  budget.  The  local 
government  board's  decision  is  binding.  There  is  no  judicial  court  to 
which  the  Dublin  city  council  can  appeal.  Its  one  chance  for  a  refund 
is  to  procure  an  act  of  parliament  for  the  settlement  of  this  small 
purely  local  transaction — if  such  an  act  can  be  jammed  through  when 

27 


parliament  is  distracted  with  consideration  of  vast,  revolutionary  fiscal 
schemes  affecting  the  whole  40,000,000  people  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

Thus,  through  its  local  government  boards,  whose  members  are 
appointed  by  the  national  government,  the  nation  conducts  an  audit 
of  all  expenditures  by  British  cities,  and  exercises  a  degree  of  control 
over  details  of  their  local  administration  which  no  American  legisla- 
ture would  dare  attempt  to  enforce  upon  an  American  city.  Women 
taxpayers  vote  on  equal  terms  with  men  taxpayers  on  all  municipal 
affairs  in  the  cities  of  Great  Britain.  There  have  been  two  women 
mayors  of  big  English  towns — one  larger  than  Houston — but  govern- 
ment in  practice  is  to  a  large  extent  handed  dovm  to  the  people  from 
the  national  capital.  Each  city  has  a  board  of  aldermen  and  council- 
lors, elected  by  the  people.  This  board  in  turn  elects  the  lord  mayor, 
who  is  usually  a  mere  figurehead.  In  practice,  British  cities  have  long 
since  adopted  the  custom  of  re-electing  the  city  clerk,  the  city  treas- 
urer and  the  other  city  officials  who  really  manage  the  business,  terra 
after  term,  as  long  as  they  care  to  serve,  thus  enabling  men  who  have 
prepared  themselves  for  it  to  make  a  career  in  such  offices,  and  pro- 
curing for  the  city  business  the  benefit  of  trained  public  servants.  In 
Cork,  for  example,  there  are  seven  city  wards.  Each  ward  elects  two 
aldermen  and  six  councillors,  making  a  legislative  body  of  fifty-six 
members.  It  is  esteemed  a  high  honor  to  be  chosen  to  one  of  these 
offices,  and  as  a  rule  the  best  men  in  the  cities  are  proud  to  be  chosen. 
It  is  readily  seen,  however,  that  between  the  supervision  of  the  local 
government  board  and  the  exercise  of  customary  authority  by  the  prac- 
tically permanent  officials — town  clerk,  treasurer,  chamberlain,  col- 
lector, etc. — little  remains  for  the  city  councillors  to  do  but  follow  the 
lines  laid  down  by  the  routine  officials  and  track  the  parliamentary 
charters  as  closely  as  they  can.  Here  is  a  wide  difference  from  the 
Texas  city  commission  plan,  where  the  people  elect  five  men  to  admin- 
ister all  municipal  affairs,  with  a  free  hand  to  manage  the  public 
business,  unhampered  by  higher  authorities,  within  charter  limits,  and 
responsible  for  results  only  to  the  citizen  stockholders  in  the  municipal 
corporation. 

The  City  of  Dublin  owns  its  own  water  works  and  electric  lighting 
system.  Its  gas  plant  and  street  railways  are  privately  owned.  The 
water  is  inferior  in  appearance  to  that  which  we  get  through  city 
mains  from  artesian  wells  in  Houston;  a  glance  at  a  glass  of  it  dis- 
closed so  much  organic  life  that  I  did  not  taste  it.  The  electric  light- 
ing service  is  not  cheaper  than  that  given  by  a  private  company  in 
Houston.  Advocates  of  municipal  ownership  are  not  numerous  in 
Dublin.  This,  I  gathered  from  talks  with  several  representative  citi- 
zens, is  not  because  of  any  distrust  of  public  ownership  as  a  general 
proposition,  but  to  distrust  of  it  as  applied  to  Dublin  under  existing 
governmental  conditions.  As  folks  used  to  say  in  some  American 
cities,  "there  is  too  much  politics"  in  Dublin.  The  charter  of  the  city 
authorizes  it  to  acquire  ownership  of  the  street  railways  at  the  end  of 
a  term  of  years,  but  there  is  little  or  no  demand  for  such  change  of 
control. 

28 


The  street  railway  system  is  the  one  conspicuously  excellent  public 
utility  of  Dublin.  It  runs  double-decked  cars  (top  deck  enclosed  on 
the  longer  lines),  on  sixteen  different  routes.  These  cars  are  about 
one-fourth  shorter  than  the  cars  we  have  in  Houston.  They  are  very 
comfortable,  propelled  by  trolley,  and  run  swiftly.  Cars  on  all  routes 
run  from  three  to  twelve  minutes  apart,  on  most  routes  three  to  five 
minutes  apart.  Fares  range  from  one  pence  (two  cents  of  our  money) 
for  all  trips  within  a  radius  of  one  and  one-half  miles,  up  to  five  pence 
(ten  cents)  for  the  long  trips  of  ten  miles  into  the  suburbs.  The  com- 
pany's charter  was  granted  by  an  act  of  parliament,  the  act  being  based 
upon  the  terms  of  an  agreement  between  the  company  and  the  city 
corporation.  The  charter,  granted  in  1896  to  terminate  in  1925,  fixed 
the  maximum  fare  at  one  pence  for  all  rides  inside  the  then  city  lim- 
its. This  distance  was  nowhere,  in  1896,  greater  than  one  and  one- 
half  miles.  Since  then  the  city's  limits  have  been  extended  several 
miles  and  there  is  a  vigorous  demand  that  the  one-pence  fare  be 
applied  everywhere  within  the  enlarged  city  limits. 

Mr.  C.  W.  Gordon,  who  has  managed  the  system  for  thirteen  years, 
told  me  he  would  be  glad  to  exchange  the  zone  system  of  fares  for  the 
straight  five-cent  fare  charged  by  American  street  railways.  "We 
would  earn  larger  profits',"  he  said.  "Under  our  zone  system  each 
passenger  pays  for  the  service  he  gets.  Under  your  American  plan 
the  short-distance  rider  pays  a  part  of  the  cost  of  transporting  the 
long-distance  rider,  and  the  average — there  being  many  more  short- 
distance  than  long-distance  riders — is  in  favor  of  the  company.  Our 
company  pays  6  per  cent  dividends  on  its  stock,  which  is  mostly  held  in 
small  blocks  throughout  Ireland."  The  company's  published  fiscal 
statement  for  the  past  year  shows  that  after  paying  6  per  cent  on 
stock  it  set  aside  $50,000  for  renewals,  $5,000  for  accident  insurance 
reserve  and  added  $56,000  to  its  reserve  fund — not  so  bad  for  a  com- 
pany which  is  assessed  for  taxation  on  a  total  income  valuation  of  less 
than  $80,000. 

Transfers  are  not  given  on  the  Dublin  trams.  They  have  not  been 
demanded  as  yet,  but  there  is  a  lively  demand  for  half-penny  fares 
within  the  one  and  one-half  miles  limit,  for  workingmen.  Children 
under  three  years  of  age  pay  half-fare;  none  ride  free.  It  is  the  chief 
fault  of  the  zone  system  of  fares  that  it  tends  to  prevent  workingmen 
from  seeking  homes  in  the  suburbs  and  concentrates  them  with  their 
families  inside  the  crowded  one-pence-fare  limit.  This  is  fine  for  the 
owners  of  close-in  tenements  but  it  is  not  good  for  the  workers  who 
want  lower  rents  farther  out. 

The  Dublin  United  Tramways  Company  pays  the  City  of  Dublin  a 
fixed  sum  per  street  mile  per  year  rental  for  tlie  use  of  streets  which 
it  occupies  with  its  tracks.  The  charter  stipulates  that  this  payment 
shall  not  be  less  than  $50,000  a  year;  last  year  it  exceeded  $60,000. 
In  addition  the  tram  company  paid  its  share  of  tlie  general  taxes.  The 
rate  is  ten  shillings  and  sixpence,  or  $2.52,  on  each  pound  ($4.85)  of 
assessed  value.  A  city  tax  of  fifty  dollars  on  the  hundred  sounds  high, 
but  it  is  not  as  bad  as  it  looks,  since  i)roj)erty  in  Dublin  is  assessed 

29 


for  taxation  at  an  average  of  only  one-fortieth  of  its  actual  value. 
Figured  down  to  an  American  basis,  it  is  about  the  same  as  the  $1.70 
on  the  $100  rate  levied  by  the  City  of  Houston;  and  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  these  old  cities  have  long  since  completed  the  huge,  costly 
task  of  building  their  undergi-ound  city  foundations,  and  have  now 
to  do  little  more  than  maintain  them,  while  Houston,  and  other  young 
American  cities,  growing  rapidly  from  a  village  start  only  a  few  decades 
ago,  have  to  meet,  out  of  their  current  taxation,  the  big  expense  of 
laying  these  foundations,  plus  the  normal  cost  of  administration.  It 
strikes  me  residents  of  fairly  Avell  governed  American  cities  get  more 
for  their  money,  dollar  for  dollar,  than  the  residents  of  these  Irish 
cities. 

Texas  street  railway  employes  will  be  interested  to  learn  that  con- 
ductors and  motormen  here  work  the  first  year,  with  no  day  off,  for 
24  shillings  and  sixpence  ($5.96)  per  week.  Then,  if  their  record 
for  the  year  is  good,  they  get  promoted  to  27  shillings  and  sixpence 
for  the  second  year,  and  to  30  shillings  ($7.20)  per  week  for  the  third 
year  and  thereafter.  They  get  one  day  off  in  twelve,  after  the  first 
year.  The  company  provides  uniforms,  overcoats  and  raincoats  for  the 
men  free  of  charge.  It  o^wtis  groups  of  cottages  situated  near  its  out- 
lying terminals,  which  it  rents  to  its  men  at  three  to  five  shillings  per 
week,  and  is  building  more.  These  men,  the  car  men,  work  an  average 
of  nine  and  one-half  hours  daily.  Three  attempts  have  been  made  to 
organize  a  union  of  the  carmen,  but  without  success.  As  Manager 
Gordon  put  it,  with  unconscious  humor,  "Our  carmen  hold  themselves 
a  class  above  the  common  laborers  with  whom  it  was  sought  to  unite 
them  in  a  national  transport  union." 

It  is  commonly  asserted  that  the  cost  of  living  for  workingmen  is 
far  lower  in  Ireland  than  in  the  United  States;  that  $7  a  week  will 
buy  more  than  $14  in  the  States.  I  have  visited  the  provision  markets 
and  clothing  stores  in  the  Irish  cities  and  the  prices  quoted  on  the 
simple  necessaries  of  life  in  those  places  do  not  bear  out  the  fore- 
going assertion.  The  difference  in  price  of  most  foods,  here  and  at 
home,  averages  less  than  20  per  cent,  and  on  some  items  it  is  in  favor 
of  the  States.  The  plain  fact  is  that  these  workingmen  do  not  begin 
to  live  as  well  or  independently  as  men  similarly  employed  in  our 
country.  The  burden  of  supporting  many  overlapping  and  often  con- 
flicting governing  bodies  bears  heavily  upon  the  working  people  of 
British,  and  particularly  of  Irish,  cities.  A  distinguished  Irish  labor 
leader,  formerly  a  member  of  parliament,  told  me  the  workers  of  the 
Irish  cities  would  be  glad  to  have  a  chance  to  adopt  the  Texas  com- 
mission form  of  government,  so  that  they  might  fix  responsibility  for 
results  upon  a  few  men  chosen  directly  by  the  people,  and  get  rid  of  the 
army  of  tax-eating  place-holders  now  saddled  upon  the  people  without 
their  desire  or  consent.  "We  could  then,'"  he  said,  "take  up  municipal 
ownership  as  Glasgow  has  done,  and  turn  the  surplus  revenues  of  the 
public  utilities  into  the  public  treasury.  As  matters  stand  with  us, 
municipal  ownership  M^ould  probably  not  give  us  lower  rates  or  better 
service  and  would  certainly  be  made  an  excuse  for  creating  many  new 
public  jobs." 

30 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Glasgow's  Muxicipal  Philosophy. 

''We  object  to  anybody  growing  rich  through  ownership  of  a  monop- 
oly of  any  of  the  necessaries  of  our  common  life.  We  do  not  conduct 
our  municipal  services  with  a  view  to  making  profits  for  the  treasury, 
but  with  the  purpose  to  give  the  maximum  of  service  for  the  minimum 
of  cost.  When  any  public  service  here  shows  a  profit  on  operation,  after 
it  has  earned  interest  on  its  outstanding  obligations  and  made  its 
yearly  contribution  to  its  sinking  fimd,  we  reduce  the  charges  for  its 
service." 

In  those  words,  John  Lindsay,  town  clerk  of  the  Glasgow  city  cor- 
poration, stated  the  principle  in  pursuance  of  which  Glasgow  has  car- 
ried municipal  ownership  farther  than  any  large  American  city,  and 
farther,  it  is  said,  than  any  in  Europe. 

In  dealing  with  the  municipal  affairs  of  Glasgow,  I  shall  be  obliged 
to  separate  my  notes  into  three  articles,  lest  one  tax  the  reader's 
patience  by  reason  of  its  length.  In  this,  the  first  of  the  three  articles, 
I  shall  present  main  outlines  of  the  theme  and  some  general  con- 
siderations. In  the  second  article  the  tramways  and  other  public 
utilities  of  Glasgow  will  be  discussed.  In  the  third  article  the  attempt 
of  Glasgow  to  find  a  solution  of  the  slum  problem  will  be  taken  up. 

It  may  be  stated  frankly,  at  the  outset,  that  municipal  ownership  of 
public  utilities  is  a  success  in  Glasgow — a  success  tested  through  many 
years;  as  much  of  a  success  as  commission  government  of  cities  in 
America;  a  success  socially  and  financially.  The  people  of  Glasgow 
would  no  more  think  of  abandoning  municipal  ownership  of  their 
public  utilities  than  the  people  of  Houston  would  of  al)andoning  com- 
mission government.  In  both  instances  there  was  strong  opposition  to 
adoption  of  the  new  system,  and  in  both  there  has  been  and  is  a 
dwindling  minority  still  unreconciled  ;  but  in  both  instances  the  new 
system  has  won  lasting  favor  with  the  majority  by  "delivering  the 
goods." 

The  city  corporation  of  Glasgow,  at  this  writing,  contains  within 
its  geographical  limits  more  than  780,000  inhabitants.  In  November 
several  adjoining  boroughs',  with  250,000  inhabitants,  will  be  taken 
into  the  city,  giving  a  population  of  more  than  1,000,000.  All  of  this 
population  is  now  served  by  the  water,  gas,  electric  lighting,  street 
railway  and  other  public  "utilities  of  Glasgow,  so  that  Glasgow's 
experimfnt  in  [)uh]ic  ownership  and  operation  of  those  services  can  be 
said  truthfully  to  have  made  good  under  metropolitan  conditions. 

31 


The  following  are  the  public  utilities  owned  and  operated  by  the 
city  corporation  of  Glasgow: 

1.  Street  railways. 

2.  Gas. 

3.  Electric  lighting. 

4.  Water. 

5.  Parks. 

6.  Slaughter  houses  and  markets  for  meat  and  vegetables'. 

7.  Baths  and  washhouses. 

8.  Art  galleries  and  museums  and  public  libraries. 

9.  Hospitals. 

10.  Tenements  and  lodging  houses. 

11.  Police  and  fire  departments, 

12.  Drainage  and  sanitary  sewers  and  sewage  disposal  stations. 

13.  Farms,  on  which  city  sewage  is  utilized  in  growing  forage  crops 

for  live  stock  owned  by  the  city. 

14.  Streets  and  bridges. 

15.  Public  health  bureau. 

Education  is  controlled  by  a  separate  board,  chosen  by  the  people. 

The  city  owned  and  operated  a  telephone  system,  in  competition 
with  a  powerful  British  system  privately  owned,  until  the  national 
government  recently  took  over  the  telephone  service  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  made  it  a  national  monopoly,  a  bureau  of  the  postoffice 
department,  like  the  telegraphs.  Similarly,  Glasgow  owned  and  oper- 
ated a  system  of  employment  offices  until  this,  too,  was  made  a  branch 
of  the  national  service. 

The  city  government  of  Glasgow  consists  of  a  lord  provost,  or  mayor, 
seventy-eight  councillors,  three  elected  from  each  ward  or  borough, 
and  the  usual  complement  of  clerical  and  departmental  employes,  all 
chosen  by  the  council.  Theoretically  it  is  more  like  a  parliament  than 
a  city  council.  Actually,  the  fact  that  here  as  elsewhere  in  large 
legislative  bodies  a  few  men  do  the  real  work  is  proved  by  a  glance  at 
those  pages  of  the  City  Blue  Book  on  which  appear  the  names  of 
members  of  the  council's  committees.  Significantly,  it  is  stated  that 
three  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum,  even  though  the  committee 
has  fifteen  or  twenty  members. 

Councillors  are  elected  for  three-year  terms.  They  receive  no  pay 
for  their  services.  The  lord  provost  or  mayor  is  elected  by  the  council 
and  must  be  one  of  their  number.  He  holds  office  for  three  years. 
If  chosen  lord  provost  during  the  last  year  of  his  three-year  term  as  a 
councillor  he  holds  the  office  of  lord  provost  three  years  without  having 
to  go  back  to  his  constituents  during  that  period  for  re-election  as  a 
councillor.  He  receives  no  salary.  The  rule  here  is  to  elect  only  men 
of  wealth  to  the  office  of  lord  provost — men  who  can  afford  to  spend 
ilOjOOO  to  i50,000  a  year  in  entertaining  distinguished  visitors,  roy- 
alty and  the  like.  There  is  a  city  fund,  the  "common  good"  fund  it 
is  called,  from  which  appropriations  are  made  by  the  council  for  these 
purposes  when  necessity  arises.     These  Glasgow  folk  trade  with  the 

32 


whole  world  and  are  well  aware  of  the  value  of  favorable  advertising 
for  their  city.  Presumably  the  expense  incurred  by  ]\Ir.  Daniel  Scrim- 
geour,  who  as  Mr.  Lindsay's  deputy,  escorted  the  Houston  visitor  to 
the  city's  big  public  services  in  a  taxi,  and  otherwise  made  the  Glasgow 
visit  one  long  to  be  cheerfully  remembered,  will  be  charged  against  the 
city's  "common  good"  fund. 

The  town  clerk,  treasurer  and  other  departmental  chiefs  are  by 
custom,  and  in  order  to  procure  trained  service,  chosen  by  the  council 
practically  for  life.  Similarly,  in  order  to  insure  continuity  of  munici- 
pal policies,  only  one-third  of  the  members  of  the  city  council  are 
elected  each  year.  There  is  thus  always  in  the  council  two-thirds  of  its 
members  acquainted  with  city  policies  and  committed  to  them.  The 
Scotch  are  cautious;  they  never  rock  the  boat;  they  take  no  such  risk 
as  of  putting  an  entire  new  government  in  charge  of  their  public  affairs 
at  one  time. 

The  question  of  municipal  ownership,  once  a  warm  issue  in  ward 
or  borough  elections  of  councilmen,  is  no  longer  an  issue.  Councillors 
are  chosen  on  national  or  personal  issues.  All  candidates  as  matter 
of  course  stand  committed  to  maintaining  municipal  ownership ;  they 
differ  only  in  the  degTee  to  which  they  wish  the  policy  carried  forward. 

Glasgow  is  an  industrial  city,  a  great  manufacturing  center.  It  has 
been  built  up  on  factors  all  of  which  Houston  possesses,  namely,  plenti- 
ful cheap  fuel  near  by  (soft  coal  here ;  fuel  oil  and  lignite  for  producer 
gas  at  Houston)  ;  iron  ores  easy  of  access,  and  a  navigable  stream 
down  to  the  sea.  Glasgow,  as  the  world's  greatest  ship  building  city, 
u.«es  vast  quantities  of  timber,  which  her  ship  builders  bring  from 
Norway.  Xo  customs  tariff  stands  between  manufacturers  and  raw 
material ;  they  get  it  cheaply. 

The  Clyde  river  is  to  Glasgow  what  Buffalo  bayou  is  to  Houston — or 
can  become  for  Houston.  The  Clyde  is  a  man-made  stream.  When 
Glasgow  folk  began  improving  it  the  Clyde  had  only  enough  water  to 
float  very  small  vessels  up  to  Glasgow.  Under  the  guidance  and 
control  of  the  Clyde  Trust,  which  has  charge  of  Glasgow's  water  in- 
terests, millions  of  pounds  have  been  spent  improving  the  Clyde  chan- 
nel, until  today  Glasgow  yards  build  the  world's  largest  ships  and  send 
tliem  down  the  river  to  the  sea.  The  Lusitania  and  the  Maur(>tania, 
32,000-ton  vessels,  were  built  here.  Sailing  up  the  Clyde  from  Dublin 
a  few  days  ago,  I  passed  miles  of  shipyards  on  either  bank  of  the  Clyde, 
all  busy,  all  turning  out  vessels  big  or  little  to  carry  the  freight  or  fight 
the  battles  of  the  nations.  In  one  yard  we  saw  the  hull  of  the  Aqui- 
tania,  the  40,000-ton  Cunarder,  which  will  l)e  a  new  giant  of  the  sea 
when  launched  ;  and  it  was  a  comforting  thought,  for  one  who  has  very 
great  faith  in  the  future  usefulness  of  the  Houston  ship  channel,  that 
there  was  less  than  three  feet  of  water  in  the  Clyde,  before  imjirovement 
was  begun,  at  the  very  point  where  tiie  Acpiitania,  drawing  near  forty 
feet,  will  be  launched,  two  dozen  miles  inland  from  the  sea.  Glasgow 
builds  300  to  3G0  ships  yearly.  Almost  any  day  one  can  see  a  big  liner 
take  the  water.  And  the  river  in  which  they  get  their  baptism  wasn't 
one-fourth  as  big,  before  men  took  it  in  hand,  as  Buffalo  bayou  was 
before  Undo  Sam  spcnf  a  dollar  on  il. 

33 


Glasgow  has,  to  be  sure  (what  Houston  lacks),  an  army  of  skilled 
workers,  with  the  tradition  of  technical  success  in  their  blood.  But 
Glasgow  created  this  army  here  at  home,  just  as  she  made  the  river, 
and  Houston  can  do  the  same,  by  adopting  Glasgow's  methods.  Glas- 
gow long  since  recognized  that  public  education  confined  to  the  head 
alone  would  not  insure  her  prosperity.  Today  more  than  17,000  men 
and  boys,  employed  in  the  industries  of  the  Glasgow  district,  are 
being  given  special  education  for  their  several  callings  in  the  so-called 
continuation  schools  maintained  at  public  cost.  Some  attend  night 
classes ;  more  attend  an  hour  or  two  during  the  day,  with  the  consent 
and  co-operation  of  their  employers,  who  realize  the  truth  that  human 
skill  is  worth  more  than  any  amount  of  rich  raw  materials  in  building 
up  and  holding  industrial  leadership  for  a  city. 

The  one  outstanding  fact  in  any  contrast  between  the  condition  of 
the  workers  here  and  at  home  is  revealed  in  the  plan  of  assessment  for 
taxation.  At  home  we  assess  property  on  its  sale  value.  Here  in 
Glasgow  real  estate  is  assessed  on  its  rental  value.  The  last  assessment 
of  Houston's  real  estate — as  I  recall  it — totaled  above  $90,000,000. 
The  Glasgow  papers  a  day  or  two  ago  published  the  new  assessment 
for  Glasgow,  totaling  £6,000,000,  or  less  than  $30,000,000.  This, 
however,  is  rental  value — the  amount  of  rent  the  property  assessed 
will  or  should  earn  in  a  year. 

This  method  of  assessing  property  means  that  in  Glasgow — and  in 
all  the  other  chief  cities  of  the  United  Kingdom — the  very  great 
majority  of  the  people  have  no  hope  whatever  of  becoming  owners  of 
the  homes  they  inhabit.  They  must  look  forward  to  paying  rent, 
either  to  a  private  estate  or  to  the  city,  as  long  as  they  live.  In  Cork, 
Lord  Mayor  O'Shea  told  me  95  per  cent  of  the  people  pay  a  double 
rent.  That  is,  the  land  is  owned  by  one  man,  the  house  by  another 
who  has  leased  the  land  for  anywhere  from  100  to  500  years,  and  the 
tenant's  rent  is  calculated  to  pay  liberal  interest  on  both  investments. 
A  Glasgow  city  official  told  me  the  condition  here  is  almost,  if  not 
quite,  as  bad  as  in  Cork. 

These  facts  explain  why  the  rich  landholders  in  Scotland  hate  the 
single  tax  theory  worse  than  they  do  the  ordinary  "sins  of  the  flesh" 
(and  the  Scotch  are  a  very  religious  people)  ;  and  it  explains  also  why 
the  progressive  city  government  of  Glasgow  was  forced  many  years  ago 
to  undertake  through  municipal  ownership  a  solution  of  the  problem 
of  housing  the  poor  who  bear  the  burden  of  this  eternal  land  monopoly. 
The  progressive  policies'  which  have  made  Glasgow  rich  and  famous 
were  not  formulated  by  the  land-holding  class,  but  by  the  more  alert 
manufacturing  and  commercial  groups  of  society. 

The  city  corporation  of  Glasgow  is  far  and  away  the  richest  property 
owner  within  its  limits.  From  the  corporation  balance  sheet  last 
issued  I  learn  that  the  city  corporation's  assets  total  £24,596,045,  or 
approximately  $122,980,225 — all  public  property.  The  city  corpora- 
tion's debts  on  this  property  total  £16,601,187,  or  approximately  $83,- 
005,935.  Its  sinking  fund  created  to  pay  off  these  debts  totals  £8,151,- 
168,  or  approximately  $40,755,840.  This  leaves  a  net  debt  of  $42,- 
270,095,   on   properties   worth   $122,980,225,   or   net   assets   totaling 

34 


$80,710,130.  These  assets  (including  as  they  do  a  large  amount  of 
real  estate  which  steadily  increases'  in  value,  and  a  wide  range  of 
revenue  producing  public  services,  nearly  all  of  wliich  are  self- 
supporting,  several  of  which  earn  a  yearly  profit  and  all  of  which  gain 
in  value  with  increasing  population),  are  gradually  paying  off  the  debt 
incurred  for  their  purchase.  They  provide  better  and  cheaper  service 
for  the  people  than  was  to  be  had  luider  private  operation  of  the  public 
services.  They  promote  the  general  health.  They  stimulate  payment 
of  better  wages  in  private  industries  by  raising  the  standard  of  living 
among  the  workers. 

But  they  do  not  go  to  the  root  of  Glasgow's  problem,  since  every  time 
the  city  tramways  reduce  fares,  or  the  city  gas  works  cuts  the  price  of 
gas,  the  small  number  of  large  estates  which  own  thousands  of  tene- 
ments can  raise  rents  to  absorb  these  savings.     And  I'm  told  they  do. 


35 


CHAPTEE  V. 
Glasgow's  Muxicipally-Owned  Public  Utilities. 

Glasgow,  Scotland. — Like  Houston's  municipally-owned  water  works, 
Glasgow's  municipally-owned  street  railways  give  better  service,  at 
lower  cost,  than  was  given  by  the  private  owners  from  whom  the  two 
cities  acquired  the  properties.  Further,  in  both  instances  the  munici- 
pally owned  public  utility  not  only  gives  better  service  at  lower  cost, 
but  also,  after  earning  its  operating  cost,  and  providing  each  year  for 
its  own  bonded  debt,  turns  a  surplus  into  the  general  fund.  In  the 
case  of  Glasgow  this  is  known  as  the  "common  good"  fund. 

Yet  Mr.  John  Dalrymple,  general  manager  of  the  Glasgow  cor- 
poration tramways,  said  to  me : 

"Your  city,  enjoying  a  five-cent  fare  with  universal  transfers,  and 
the  excellent  service  for  which  the  Stone  &  Webster  Syndicate  is  noted, 
is  doing  as  well,  with  respect  to  tram  service,  as  any  American  city  can 
expect  to  do.    Doing  very  well  indeed." 

Mr.  Dalrymple  was  keenly  interested  in  my  brief  recital  of  the 
large-scale  development  in  the  Houston-Galveston  district.  He  has 
visited  America  and  studied  the  political  organization  of  our  cities. 
The  movement  for  public  ownership  of  street  railways  in  Chicago, 
which  resulted  after  years  of  struggle  in  vast  improvement  of  the 
privately  owned  service,  and  the  payment  to  the  city  of  a  large  yearly 
revenue  for  the  use  of  its  streets  was  greatly  stimulated  by  a  visit 
Mr.  Dalr}niple  paid  to  the  Chicago  city  government  a  dozen  years  ago. 
He  told  them  frankly  that  Chicago  could  not  hope  for  any  betterment 
through  municipal  o^vnership,  so  long  as  the  affairs  of  the  city  should 
be  controlled  by  groups  of  professional  politicians  struggling  for  the 
spoils  of  office. 

Mr.  Dalrymple  was  keen  to  learn  about  the  commission  form  of  city 
government.  Its  adoption  of  tlie  private  corporation  princij)le  of  con- 
centrated authority  with  direct  responsibility  appealed  to  him  as  a 
business  man  and  an  executive.  And,  believe  me,  John  Dalrymple, 
judged  by  his  works,  is  a  great  executive. 

"Your  compact  central  government,"  he  said,  "is  free  to  employ 
technical  experts  to  manage  its  departments?"  he  inquired. 

"That  is  as  it  should  be.  The  people's  business,  like  any  other  in 
our  day.  calls  for  skilled  s[)Ocialists." 

Mr.  Dalrymple  showed  me  through  the  shops  attached  to  the  Glas- 
gow tram  system — shops  in  which  the  city's  cars  arc  made  and  re- 
paired. In  these  shops  500  men  are  employed.  The  system  entire 
employs  /),400.    Men  in  the  shops  nre  all  on  piece  work.    They  earn  the 

37 

47972 


standard  wage  of  the  district  in  their  several  trades,  but  the  shops  are 
not  closed  against  non-union  workers.  The  carmen — conductors  and 
motormen — get  24  shillings  (about  $5)  weekly  the  first  year — plus 
free  uniforms,  overcoats,  etc.,  and  in  four  years  rise  to  the  maximum 
of  33  to  35  shillings. 

Eighteen  months  ago,  Mr.  Dalrymple  said,  the  system  had  its  first 
strike.  On  a  Friday  night  the  carmen  assembled  and  voted  unani- 
mously to  demand  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours.  Saturday  morning 
Qjily  a  few  cars  were  taken  out  and  these  were  stoned  by  strikers  and 
by  the  hoodlum  element  in  the  city.  The  council  committee  on  tram- 
ways met  and  resolved  to  leave  the  situation  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Dalrymple.  He  served  instant  notice  on  the  strikers  that  if  they  did 
not  at  once  return  to  work  their  places'  would  be  filled — and  the  cars 
were  all  running  as  usual  within  the  time  he  fixed.  Three  hundred  and 
fifty  of  the  strikers  lost  their  jobs,  these  being  the  men,  Mr.  Dalrymple 
said,  who  were  most  active  in  organizing  the  union  and  in  attacking 
the  cars.  Mr.  Dalrymple's  curt  account  of  the  crushing  of  this  strike 
made  it  clear  that  it  is  a  more  serious  undertaking  to  coerce  a  public 
than  a  private  employer. 

However,  since  that  strike  the  system  has  quietly  granted  most  of 
the  demands  that  were  made  by  the  men.  They  now — thanks  to  an 
order  of  the  city  council — work  only  eight  and  one-half  hours  daily 
Bix  days  in  the  week,  and  these  eight  and  one-half  hours,  divided  into 
two  shifts,  are  brought  within  twelve  hours  of  elapsed  time  in  most 
cases. 

The  system  has  196  miles  of  track  in  Glasgow  and  the  surrounding 
towns  and  operates  850  cars.  All  of  these  cars  are  double-decked,  most 
of  them  having  the  upper  deck  enclosed.  This  type  of  car  is  the 
standard.  It  seats  sixty-six  passengers — and  by  the  way  when  the 
seats  in  a  Glasgow  street  car  are  all  filled,  no  more  passengers  are 
admitted.    Your  carfare  in  Glasgow  buys  a  seat,  not  standing  room. 

Fares  range  from  a  half -penny  (one  cent  American  money),  for  an 
average  of  a  mile  ride,  up  to  sixpence  for  the  longest  suburban  trips. 
The  average  cost  of  the  service  per  passenger  during  the  year  ending 
May  31,  1913,  was  .508  pence,  or  a  trifle  over  one  cent  of  our  money. 
Mr.  Dalrymple  said  the  recent  reduction  of  the  minimum  fare  from 
one  pence  to  a  half-penny  would  cut  heavily  into  the  surplus  earnings 
of  the  system,  since  the  large  majority  of  all  fares  are  for  the  shorter 
distances. 

The  finances  of  the  system  are  exhibited  in  the  following  report  on 
income  and  expenditure  for  the  year  ending  May  31,  1912 : 

"The  result  of  the  year's  working  shows  that  the  ordinary  income 
amounted  to  £991,073  ($4,955,375),  and  the  working  expenses  to 
i582,639  ($2,913,195),  thus  leaving  a  net  revenue  of  £408,435  ($2,- 
042,126).  The  ordinary  income  of  the  previous  year  was  £949,488, 
and  the  working  expenses  £533,178,  leaving  a  net  revenue  of  £416,309. 
After  adding  interest  on  investment  and  rent  of  lines  let  to  Dum- 

38 


barton  Burgh  and  County  Tramways  Co.,  Lid.,  the  net  revenue  of 
i4o8,207  has  been  applied  in  meeting  rental  of  Govan  and  Ibrox 
tramways,  payment  to  Paisley  District  Tramways  Co.,  interest  on 
capital,  sinking  fund,  income  tax,  parliamentan'  expenses,  and  amount 
carried  to  depreciation  and  permanent  way  renewal  fund,  these  sums 
amounting  in  all  to  £406,129.  The  net  balance  amounting  to  £52,067, 
falls  under  Section  30  of  Glasgow  Corporation  Act,  1909,  to  be  paid 
over  to  the  Common  Good." 

In  the  tabulated  statement  it  appears  that  the  Glasgow  City  Tram- 
way System  paid  £13,027  ($65,133)  of  national  income  tax  during 
the  year,  that  it  paid  £75,092  interest  on  borrowed  capital,  £93,863  to 
sinking  fund  for  same  account,  put  £128,072  in  its  depreciation  fund 
and  £85,631  in  its  permanent  way  renewal  fimd,  and  after  meeting  all 
charges  of  every  character  had  a  clear  net  surplus  of  $260,133,  to  turn 
over  to  the  Common  Good  fimd. 

Municipal  ownership  of  tramways  is  no  new  thing  in  Glasgow. 
From  an  official  publication  I  learn  that  "The  first  tramway  in  Glas- 
gow was  constructed  by  the  corporation,  and  opened  on  19th  August, 
1872.  From  1872  to  1894  the  lines  were  leased  to  the  Glasgow  Tram- 
way and  Onmibus  Company.  On  1st  July,  1894,  the  corporation 
commenced  to  operate  the  tramways  as  a  municipal  undertaking." 

The  water,  gas',  electric  lighting  and  market  departments  are  the 
other  chief  revenue  producers  for  the  City  of  Glasgow.  In  the  year 
ending  May  31,  1912,  the  markets  department  showed  revenue  £37,- 
743;  expense,  £37,515;  surplus,  £227.  The  markets  department  con- 
trols three  public  markets  and  four  or  five  slaughter  houses.  The 
main  slaughter  house  is  situated  in  a  thickly  settled  portion  of  the 
city,  yet  so  clean  is  it  kept  that  one  passing  near  it  would  not  be  aware 
of  its  existence.  Within  this  main  abattoir  are  pens  for  15,000  sheep, 
and  facilities  (the  most  modern  and  efficient)  for  killing  1,800  cattle, 
5,000  sheep  and  2,000  pigs  daily.  The  city  does  not  buy  or  sell  the 
products.  It  merely  provides  facilities  for  doing  the  work,  inspects  all 
animals  brought  in  to  be  killed  and  all  meats  offered  for  sale,  and  rents 
its  stalls  to  private  individuals  and  companies  at  rates  which  enable 
it  to  pay  cost  of  operation,  while  safeguarding  its  people  against  pesti- 
lential odors  and  infected  meats.  This  service  is  regarded  in  Glasgow 
a.s'  one  vital  to  the  public  health. 

The  water  works,  witli  £259,450  gross  revenue  for  tlie  year,  paid 
operating  cost,  sinking  fund  and  interest  charges,  carried  £12,674 
forwanl  as  surplus,  to  meet  interest  and  sinking  fund  on  new  works 
in  progress.  Citizens  of  Glasgow  buy  city  water  (clear  cold  mountain 
water  it  is)  for  fourpence  on  each  pound  of  rent  they  pay  yearly.  If  a 
working  man  occuf)ying  two  or  three  rooms  in  a  tenenient  jiays  £15  a 
year  rental,  his  water  rental  will  be  four  times  that  maTiy  pence,  or 
$1.20.  The  water  supply  is  not  melered.  To  large  consumers — fac- 
torifjs,  railrojuls,  etc. — the  rate  is  one  pence  per  poiuid  of  jinnual  rental. 
To  suburbanites  who  get  city  water  the  charge  is  tenpence  per  |)ound 

39 


of  yearly  house  rental.  Their  desire  to  get  the  reduction  to  fourpence 
per  pound  was  one  of  the  causes  that  popularized  the  movement  for 
the  anne-xation  of  several  outlying  hurghs,  which  will  take  place  in 
Xovember  (1912),  adding  250,000  to  Glasgow's  population. 

By  the  way,  there  was  no  vote  of  the  people  on  this  annexation, 
either  in  Glasgow  or  in  the  towns  annexed.  Glasgow  asked  the  British 
parliament  for  an  act  permitting  her  to  swallow  her  smaller  neighbors, 
and  after  some  spirited  arguments  before  committees  parliament  passed 
the  annexation  act. 

Gas'  for  lighting  and  cooking  sells  for  22.52  pence  (45.04  cents 
American)  per  thousand  feet.  It  cost  the  city  one  pence  less  per 
thousand  feet  to  make  and  deliver  the  gas  in  the  year  ending  May  31, 
1912.  That  one  pence  per  thousand  feet  profit  enabled  the  gas  de- 
partment, with  a  gross  revenue  of  i924,102  (nearly  as  large  as  the 
street  railways),  to  put  aside  a  net  surplus  of  i27,503,  after  meeting 
all  charges.  The  preceding  year  the  city  spent  45  cents  American  to 
make  1,000  feet  of  gas,  and  delivered  it  for  46.74  cents  per  thousand. 
Gas  is  popular  for  heating  and  cooking  in  Glasgow,  both  because  of  its 
low  cost  and  because  the  city  gas  department  supplies  heaters  and 
stoves  free  of  cost  to  its  patrons.  It  figures  the  cost  of  the  stoves 
into  the  cost  of  the  gas  and  is  able  after  selling  gas  cheaper  than  any 
American  householder  buys  it  to  throw  in  the  stoves  as  a  special  in- 
ducement to  burn  its  product. 

Glasgow's  gas  and  electric  lighting  plants  are  competitive.  The  elec- 
tricity department,  on  gross  revenue  of  £276,659  for  the  year,  met  all 
charges  and  carried  £6,524  to  surplus,  which  now  totals  £34,870.  The 
"board  of  trade  unit"'  is  the  basis  of  current  measurement  I  am  told ; 
here  the  rate  is  very  low,  about  50  per  cent  of  the  average  in  American 
cities.  The  official  reports  of  the  Glasgow  city  departments,  recently 
placed  on  file  in  our  Houston  Public  Library,  will  afford  interested 
persons  opportunity  to  scrutinize  details  expertly. 

Glasgow  has  a  police  force  of  1,800  men,  who  serve  in  three  shifts 
of  eight  hours  per  day  so  arranged  that  no  man  works  more  than  six 
days  a  week. 

The  fire  department  will  have  200  men  when  suburbs  are  annexed 
in  November.  They  work  six  days  weekly,  but  of  course  are  subject  to 
call  for  special  service  in  an  emergency.  The  department  provides  free 
housing  with  free  light,  heat  and  water  for  all  its  firemen,  in  its  own 
buildings.  Their  wages  run  from  24  shillings  weekly  upward.  This 
department  maintains  its  own  shops  in  which  it  makes  and  repairs  all 
its  equipment  except  its  big  motor  combination  fire  engine  and  ladder 
trucks,  of  which  it  has  seventeen.  No  horses  are  used  in  the  depart- 
ment. Fire  losses  in  Glasgow,  as  in  other  European  cities,  are  trifling 
compared  with  losses  in  American  cities,  due  to  the  fact  that  over  here 
stone,  brick,  concrete  and  other  non-burning  materials  are  used  in 
place  of  wood  in  l)uilding  construction. 

40 


Summed  up,  the  balance  sheet  of  the  Glasgow  city  corporation 
shows  it  to  be  a  going  and  a  paying  concern,  providing  the  necessaries 
of  community  life  to  its  citizens  more  efficiently  and  cheaply  than 
these  were  formerly  supplied  by  private  enterprise.  Beyond  this  the 
city  corporation,  through  its  city  improvement  department  and  its 
municipal  lodging  and  tenement  houses,  is  vising  surplus  earnings  of 
its  revenue-producing  services  in  an  attempt  to  eliminate  the  slums. 

Glasgow's  city  managers  believe  city  slums  are  due  to  private  monop- 
oly of  the  necessaries  of  life.  They  believe  a  city  which  o^^tis  and 
operates  its  public  utilities  can  and  should  mitigate  if  not  wholly  abol- 
ish the  evils  of  slum  life.  To  this  end  they  are  working  under  the 
steady  pressure  of  intelligent  public  opinion. 

My  third  and  concluding  article  on  Glasgow  will  deal  with  this  work. 


41 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Glasgow's  Battle  With  the  Slum. 

Glasgow,  Scotland. — Glasgow's  battle  with  the  slum  began  in  1866. 
That  year  parliament  created  the  Glasgow  City  Improvement  Trust. 
The  conditions  which  led  to  this  action  were  stated  in  the  preamble  of 
the  act  creating  the  trust,  as  follows : 

"Whereas  various  portions  of  the  City  of  Glasgow  are  so  built,  and 
the  buildings  thereon  are  so  densely  inhabited,  as  to  be  highly  inju- 
rious to  the  moral  and  physical  welfare  of  the  inhabitants,  and  many 
of  the  thoroughfares  are  narrow,  circuitous  and  inconvenient,  and  it 
would  be  of  public  and  local  advantage  if  various  houses  and  buildings 
were  taken  down  and  those  portions  of  said  city  reconstituted,  and  new 
streets  were  constructed  in  and  through  various  parts  of  said  city,  and 
several  of  the  existing  streets  altered  and  widened  and  diverted,  and 
that  in  connection  with  the  reconstitution  of  those  portions  of  the 
city  provision  was  made  for  the  laboring  classes  who  may  be  displaced 
in  consequence  thereof,''  etc. 

In  short,  land  monopoly,  high  rents,  want  of  cheap  transportation 
to  enable  wage  workers  to  find  homes  beyond  walking  distance  from 
the  shops  and  stores  they  served  in,  created  in  Glasgow,  as  they  have 
done  in  all  our  big  American  cities,  slum  conditions.  I  am  told  the  old 
slums  of  Glasgow  were  the  worst  in  the  world.  Those  which  remain 
are  bad  enough;  it  would  not  be  easy  to  match  them  outside  of 
New  York.  But  the  City  Iin])rovement  Trust  of  Glasgow,  honestly 
trying  to  iK'tter  the  living  conditions  of  tlie  worthy  poor,  has  done 
some  good  and  will  doubtless  be  able  hereafter,  as  the  funds  at  its  com- 
mand increase,  to  do  more  despite  the  fact  that  it  can  not  remove  the 
chief  source  of  the  slum,  which  is  landlordism. 

The  trust  ha.s  bought  for  the  public  several  tracts  of  land  in  the 
most  densely  populated  sections  of  the  old  (Glasgow  slums.  It  has 
torn  down  the  old  buildings  (in  which,  to  enlarge  owners'  profits, 
little  or  no  provision  was  made  for  light,  ventilation  or  sanitation), 
and  has  erected  new  buildings  in  which  these  essentials  to  sound  liealth 
arc  assured.  It  has  erected  and  operates  seven  big  lodging  bouses,  for 
both  men  and  women  wage  earners.  It  has  widened  and  opemnl  to  the 
cleansing  sunlight  numerous  narrow,  tortuous,  pestil(>iitial  alleys  which 
were  liotberls  of  crime  ami  disease,  and  it  has  done  these  things  so  as 
to  procure  not  alone  the  profit  of  social  amelioration  but  a  direct 
financial  gain  as  well. 

43 


Incidental!}',  it  has  gained  knowledge  of  human  nature.  It  has 
learned  that  while  a  majority  of  the  poor  of  Glasgow  will  eagerly  accept 
any  betterment  brought  within  their  reach  by  social  action,  there  is  a 
considerable  minority  which  has  through  generations  of  slum  breeding 
sunk  below  the  level  of  self-respect  and  which  will  therefore  not  make 
use  of  the  new  improvements.  The  city's  model  tenements  and  its 
lodging  houses  do  not  lack  for  tenants,  at  profitable  rentals,  but  that 
element  of  society  which  had  most  need  of  a  change  to  decent  living 
conditions'  has  refused  to  enter  the  new  places.  Where  the  trust  tears 
down  a  reeking  old  rookery  and  replaces  it  with  a  clean,  new,  modern 
tenement,  the  occupants  of  the  rookery  flee  like  rats  to  other  hiding 
places  of  the  old  sort. 

It  is  the  inevitable  working  of  the  social  law  of  compensation :  strong 
individuals  of  earlier  generations,  housing  their  inferiors  for  profit  in 
tenements  unfit  for  habitation,  have  created  in  the  slow  course  of  years 
a  slum  type,  which  breeds  like  rabbits,  produces  no  wealth,  lives  in 
squalor  by  beggary  and  crime,  and  constitutes  a  heavy  and  an  increasing 
charge  upon  the  sons  and  the  grandsons  of  the  original  exploiters. 

One  night  in  August  I  rode  on  the  "rubber  neck"  wagon  through  the 
Bowery  and  Ghetto  districts  of  lower  New  York.  The  guide  in  sing- 
song megaphoned  his  trite  tale  to  us,  and  I  paid  little  heed  to  it  until, 
as  we  passed  opposite  a  small  park,  I  heard  him  say : 

"This  is Park.    It  was  formerly  the  site  of  slum  tenements, 

in  which  5000  little  children  died  of  tuberculosis.  During  the  time 
when  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  Police  Commissioner,  and  on  his 
initiative,  the  city  bought  the  land,  tore  dowTi  the  tenements  and  made 
this  park,  which  is  now  a  breathing  spot  and  playground  for  thou- 
sands of  the  children  of  this  district." 

Slums,  in  a  word,  are  created  to  make  private  profit.  They  in  turn 
create  a  slum  class,  Avhich  becomes  a  charge  upon  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  slum  in  its  physical  aspects,  as  Glasgow  has  learned,  can 
be  abolished  (at  heavy  cost  to  the  community,  and  especially  to  the 
heirs  or  successors  in  ownership  of  those  who  for  private  profit  created 
the  slum)  ;  but  the  slum  class  remains  an  even  greater  problem  and 
menace  than  the  slum  buildings. 

Here  in  Glasgow  the  improvement  trust  has  cleansed  some  of  the 
city's  worst  slum  districts,  but  it  has  not  reformed  nor  benefited  any 
but  a  few  of  the  slum  class.  These  folks  have  fled  before  the  trust  to 
new  haunts  of  the  old  character.  Apparently  the  only  way  a  city  can 
get  rid  of  its  slum  class  is  to  buy  up  and  abolish  every  piece  of  property 
of  the  kind  they  prefer  to  live  in,  driving  them  finally  out  of  the  city, 
since  they  will  not  (or  can  not)  inhabit  decent  tenements  on  the  terms 
offered  by  the  community. 

Houston  and  the  other  cities  of  Texas  have  not  yet  got  any  real 
slums.  In  view  of  the  experience  of  Glasgow,  New  York  and  other 
cities,  it  seems  highly  desirable  that  the  governments  of  Texas  cities 
shall  adopt  and  enforce  such  building  regulations  as  will  forever  pre- 
vent the  creation  of  slum  districts  within  their  borders. 

44 


Houston  is  destined  to  become  one  of  the  world's  greatest  cities. 
That  fact  is  recognized  not  only  in  Houston  but  in  places  far  distant 
from  Houston.  It  is  within  the  power  of  the  people  who  are  now  in 
Houston  laying  the  foundations  for  the  future  great  city  to  forestall 
some  of  the  costly  and  socially  destructive  evils  which  through  blind 
private  greed  and  social  neglect  have  grown  up  in  older  cities  to  burden 
and  perplex  them.  Among  these  preventable  evils  the  slum  is  the 
worst  and  most  costly.  Here  is  where  a  ton  of  prevention  will  cost 
less  than  an  ounce  of  cure  and  an  ounce  of  prevention  do  more  good 
than  a  ton  of  cure. 

The  most  imiformly  quiet,  peaceful,  industrious,  prosperous  and 
orderly  cities  are  those  in  which  the  largest  percentage  of  wage  earners 
own  the  homes  they  live  in.  Milwaukee  is  typical.  Years  ago,  in 
Milwaukee,  thousands  of  German  working  men  walked  two  to  three 
miles  to  and  from  work,  morning  and  night,  to  save  carfare.  They 
were  buying  little  homes.  They  practiced  the  old-fashioned  self-denial 
and  got  homes.  The  average  wage  worker  in  any  Texas  city  can  get  a 
home  on  even  easier  terms.  Our  American  system  of  carfares — five 
cents  for  any  distance  traveled  within  the  city — encourages  workingmen 
to  leave  the  crowded  inside  districts,  and  to  get  homes  where  ground 
space  and  pure  air  are  cheaper. 

Here  no  such  hope  is  held  out  to  the  workers.  Their  wages  as  a 
rule  are  little  if  any  above  the  level  of  bare  subsistence.  The  land  is 
monopolized,  most  of  it  is  leased  for  very  long  terms,  and  very  little  of 
it  is  for  sale  in  small  tracts.  This  indeed  was  one  of  the  first  things 
that  impressed  me  in  reading  British  newspapers,  namely,  the  almost 
entire  absence  of  land  for  sale  advertisements.  The  big  London  dailies 
carry  a  few  announcements  of  large  estates  which  have  been  put  on 
the  market  in  consequence  of  the  death  or  bankruptcy  of  owners,  but 
almost  no  small  homes,  in  city  or  country,  are  offered  for  sale. 

The  Glasgow  working  man,  therefore,  being  condemned  to  pay  rent 
to  a  landlord  all  his  life,  has  not  the  same  incentive  as  Houston  work- 
ers have  to  get  out  into  the  suburbs,  away  from  the  noise,  dirt  and 
crowding  of  city  centers.  The  Houston  worker,  in  order  to  get  his  own 
roof  over  his  family's  head,  will  forego  the  night  lights  and  make  the 
longer  morning  and  evening  journey  to  his  work;  whereas  in  Glasgow, 
1  am  told  by  men  in  authority,  it  would  be  useless  for  the  improvement 
trust  to  erect  model  tenements  in  the  suburbs,  for  the  reason  that 
the  workingmen  would  not  go  out  there  to  rent  them.  They  lack  that 
most  powerful  incentive — ambition  of  ownership. 

So  they  continue  to  live  in  the  crowded  city,  and  the  best  that  can 
be  done  for  them  under  Glasgow's  program  of  munici))al  socialism  is  to 
provide  them  with  sanitary  living  conditions  in  publicly  owned  tene- 
ments which  (because  of  high  land  values)  are  only  a  little  less 
crowded  than  the  old  rookeries  privately  owned. 

A  very  large  majority  of  the  families  of  Glasgow  live  in  two-room 
and  three-room  tenements.  Even  the  city's  so-called  model  teneuicnts 
are  mostly  divided  into  two-room  apartments,  one  of  the  two  rooms 
being  a  kitchen-bedroom,  the  otlier  a  bedroom-living  room. 

45 


It  is  precisely  because  of  these  conditions  that  a  little  group  of 
daring  single  taxers,  led  by  Lloyd-George,  has  been  able  to  seize  and 
hold  the  leadership  of  the  great  Liberal  party,  which  now  governs 
Great  Britain.  Premier  Asquith  and  others  of  the  ruling  class  who 
can  see  the  drift  of  the  time  realize  that  the  monopoly  of  the  land 
held  under  entail  and  feudal  leaseholds  for  centuries  by  a  few  thousand 
families  must  somehow  be  broken  down  to  afford  a  field  of  opportunity 
for  enterprising  and  self-denying  workers  who  desire  to  become  their 
o^Ti  landlords.  The  alternative  obviously  is  a  farther  advance  toward 
state  socialism,  with  a  strong  bureaucracy  in  control,  suppressing  wage 
strike  disorders  (as  we  have  seen  in  Glasgow)  even  more  vigorously 
than  private  employers  have  done.  And  here  as  elsewhere  the  demand 
for  state  socialism  evidently  does  not  spring  from  the  natural  instinct 
of  the  workers,  but  is  their  only  available  weapon  of  defense  against 
endless  rent  exploitation  by  a  small,  powerful  class  of  hereditary  and 
law-protected  land  monopolists.  It  seems  to  be  the  case  that  the  work- 
ers, finding  they  must  surrender  ancient  individual  privileges,  choose 
to  surrender  them  to  a  bureaucracy  ostensibly  at  least  of  their  own 
election,  rather  than  to  hereditary  landlords. 

The  moral  of  this  old-world  experience  for  our  new-world  city  build- 
ers and  legislators  is  so  plain  it  need  not  be  stated  here. 

As  for  details  of  the  Glasgow  municipal  housing  enterprise,  these 
can  be  obtained,  by  any  person  interested,  from  the  official  documents 
which  I  shall  send  to  the  Houston  Public  Library.  It  has  seemed  to  me 
to  be  better  worth  while,  in  preparing  this  l^rief  paper,  to  present  main 
outlines  and  some  of  the  chief  meanings  of  the  situation,  than  to  tax 
you  with  a  mass  of  statistical  information. 


46 


CHAPTEK  Til. 

LoxDOx,  THE  World  Capital. 

London,  England. — Mr,  Harry  Selfridge,  formerly  manager  of  the 
Marshall  Field  retail  store  in  Chicago,  the  greatest  in  the  world,  and 
now  chief  proprietor  of  the  greatest  department  store  in  London,  states 
that  within  a  circle  of  twenty  miles  in  diameter,  dra^Ti  with  his  store 
as  its  center,  over  8,000,000  human  beings  live  and  work. 

London,  the  world's  greatest  city,  is  not  one  city,  but  a  group  of 
twenty-seven  cities  and  to^^ns  shoulder  to  shoulder,  each  within  its  own 
limits  maintaining  its  own  municipal  government,  all  collectively  sub- 
ject to  governmental  control  and  supervision,  first  by  the  London 
County  Council,  second  by  the  British  national  local  government 
board,  of  which  the  Et.  Hon.  John  Burns,  erstwhile  fighting  labor 
leader,  is  chairman. 

One  would  need  not  six  months  but  six  years  to  learn  thoroughly 
the  whole  complex  network  of  municipal  administration  in  Great 
Britain.  I  had  six  working  days  on  the  ground  in  London.  Men,  who, 
because  of  their  official  station,  and  the  British  precedent  to  the  con- 
trary, are  never  interviewed  by  the  press,  admitted  me  to  ask  ques- 
tions, as  the  official  representative  of  an  American  city,  and  tried 
patiently  to  make  me  see  and  understand  the  main  outlines  of  British 
municipal  administration. 

I  have  reason  to  believe  the  general  letter  of  introduction  which 
Eugene  V.  Debs  gave  me  to  the  radical  leaders  of  Europe  was  influ- 
ential in  opening  to  me  some  doors  which  might  otherwise  have  re- 
mained closed  against  my  inquiries.  For  example,  a  leader  of  the 
powerful  socialist  group  in  the  German  reichstag,  whom  I  was  intro- 
duced to  at  the  international  inunici])al  congress  at  Dusseldorf,  discov- 
ered some  interest  in  my  mission  when  he  learned  I  had  a  letter  from 
the  American  leader  of  liis  party. 

London,  because  it  is  not  one  city  but  a  group  of  cities,  has  lagged 
behind  other  English  cities  in  adopting  municipal  ownership.  At 
home  we  are  accustomed  to  hearing  our  conservatives  deride  municipal 
ownership  of  public  utilities  and  especially  the  suggestion  that  the 
munici[)ality  ouglit  to  own  nioflcl  lodgings  for  poorly  paid  workers,  as 
"socialistic." 

Over  here  one  fipe(;dily  leams  that  these  "socialistic"  advances  have 
been  made  by  or  under  tlie  guiflance  of  the  conservatives.  I  find  in 
this  day's  Tx>ndon  Daily  Telegraph  an  article  written  by  Sir  John 
Benn  in  defense  of  the  tramways  (street  railways),  M'hich  arc  o^^^^ed 
and  operated  by  the  Tx)ndon  County  Council. 

47 


In  this  letter  (a  reply  to  a  public  statement  made  by  Sir  William 
Treloar)  Sir  John  makes  more  clear  than  any  wandering  foreigner 
could  hope  to  do  the  facts  concerning  the  results  of  municipal  owner- 
ship in  British  cities. 

I  qiiote  the  following  paragraphs : 

"Since  the  municipal  corporations  act  of  1835 — the  advantages  of 
which  were,  alas !  denied  by  the  old  city  to  Greater  London — the  cities 
of  the  provinces  have  uniformly  adopted  this  principle :  that  services 
partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  monopoly  and  particularly  affecting  the 
use  of  the  streets  shall  be  removed  from  the  purview  of  the  financier 
and  the  company,  and  carried  on  by  the  people  themselves  for  the 
common  good. 

"Experience  shows  that  this  rule  has  greatly  benefited  the  traders 
within  those  urban  areas.  In  cities  thus  equipped — i.  e.,  the  water, 
lighting,  power  and  trams  conducted  on  Birmingham  lines — private 
enterprise  has  gone  ahead  by  leaps  and  bounds  and  the  cost  of  munici- 
pal government  all  round  is  much  less  than  in  dismembered  and 
blundering  London. 

"In  Birmingham  local  government  (apart  from  the  poor  law)  costs 
43s  2d  per  head  per  annum;  in  London  it  costs  63s  9d.  The  'night 
population'  answer  to  this  startling  fact,  strengthens  my  statement, 
for  Birmingham  shows  exodus  figures  of  60  per  cent,  against  London 
51  per  cent. 

"So  we  pay  for  the  inferior  local  amenities  of  London  £4,500,000  a 
year  more  than  does  Mr.  Chamberlain's  well-ordered  city.  Manches- 
ter, Birmingham,  Sheffield,  Leeds,  out  of  water,  gas,  electric  lighting 
and  tramways,  transfer  to  relief  of  rates  (reduction  of  taxes)  an 
average  of  no  less  than  two  shillings  in  the  pound,  and  they  all  charge 
less  than  the  old  company  prices. 

"A  like  relief  to  London — which  should  be,  and  is,  the  El  Dorado 
of  such  enterprise — would  mean  over  £4,000,000  per  annum.  Sir 
"William,  after  the  'moderate'  manner,  dubs  all  such  efforts  'socialism.' 
If  he  inquires  he  will  find  that  the  'municipal  trading'  which  he  so 
condemns,  is  mainly  carried  on — as  in  Birmingham — by  conservatives, 
and  they  don't  call  it  'socialism.' 

"One  would  imagine  from  his  article  that  the  wicked  progressives 
were  responsible  for  his  hete  noir  wherever  it  showed  its  head  in 
London.  This  is  by  no  means  so.  It  was  the  conservatives,  under  the 
act  of  1898,  who  gave  the  borough  councils  power  to  set  up  isolated 
municipal  electric  light  undertakings. 

"And  the  same  party  refused  to  grant  London  County  Council  the 
power  to  supply  the  necessary  electricity  in  bulk  wherewith  to  make 
these  undertakings  successful.  What  is  the  result?  Today  London  is 
producing  in  piecemeal  fashion  by  borough  council  and  company  212 
millions  of  units  at  cost  of,  roughly,  1)4^;  while  we  are  producing  at 
Greenwich  for  our  tramways  the  same  article  at  34*^  ^  unit.  So  we 
see  that  212  millions  of  pennies  (making  £800,000)  are  annually 
thrown  away  in  the  production  of  this  necessity  of  commercial  life. 

48 


"Sir  William  is  gravely  concerned  as  to  the  financial  stability  of  the 
council's  tramway  imdertaking.  As  to  finance  I  can  not  do  better  than 
quote  the  statement  made  by  the  present  chairman  of  the  finance  com- 
mittee, Mr.  K.  C.  Xorman,  an  eminent  moderate,  when  he  presented 
this  year's  London  County  Council  budget. 

"He  said  of  our  tramway  undertaking:  'it  is  at  present  in  a  sound 
condition.  It  provides  all  working  expenses ;  it  pays  the  interest  on  the 
money  raised  for  it ;  it  is  building  up  an  adequate  renewals  fund ;  it  is 
repaying  year  by  year  large  amounts  of  borrowed  capital ;  and,  beyond 
all  this,  it  is  able  to  put  aside  something  to  a  general  reserve  fund. 
This  can  not  but  be  regarded  as  a  satisfactory  state  of  affairs.  No 
company-managed  tramway  could  have  such  a  record.'  " 

Each  London  tramcar  in  service  (publicly  owned,  mind  you)  pays 
192  pounds,  or  nearly  $1,000,  a  year  from  its  earnings  in  taxes  to  the 
several  cities,  to  the  county  and  the  nation,  most  of  this  amount  being 
used  for  maintenance  of  municipal  charges.  The  motor  omnibuses 
pay  no  such  public  rates;  they  pay  $200  to  $250  a  year  petrol  tax 
(which  is  collected  by  the  national  government)  and  use  the  city 
streets  free  of  charge. 

The  main  point  of  all  of  this,  quite  aside  from  ownaership  and  taxes, 
is  the  apparent  probability  that  in  large  cities  throughout  the  world 
the  motor  omnibus  will  in  large  measure  supplement  and  supplant  the 
tram,  as  being  cheaper  and  more  efficient — a  distinct  advance  in  urban 
transport. 

It  seems  to  me  likely  to  make  the  problem  of  urban  transport,  ulti- 
mately, one  of  paved  streets  rather  than  of  steel  tracks.  The  growing 
city  which  fails  to  give  intelligent  consideration  to  this  new  develop- 
ment of  city  passenger  traffic  is  liable  to  find  it  has  overlooked  a  very 
important  bet. 

In  London  I  visited  some  municipal  works,  the  slums  celebrated 
throughout  the  world,  the  public  parks,  and  w^as  especially  interested  in 
the  way  the  problem  of  city  transportation  has  been  worked  out,  since 
transportation,  with  8,000,000  people  living  on  less  than  400  square 
miles  of  land,  is  inevitably  the  hardest  problem  to  solve. 

I  found  the  celebrated  slums,  with  Petticoat  Lane  at  their  center,  far 
less  forbidding  in  external  appearance  than  many  slums  in  American 
cities.  For  one  thing,  most  of  the  buildings  in  these  slum  streets,  lanes 
and  alleys  are  only  two  to  four  stories  high;  the  air  has  a  free  sweep 
through  them,  the  sun  shines  into  them  (when  it  shines  at  all  on 
London),  and  all  these  slum  highways  are  ])aved  with  rock  or  asphalt 
and  kept  clean  by  city  workmen.  Large  public  parks  are  near  the  worst 
of  the  slums,  and  in  these  parks,  on  one  sunny  day,  I  counted  over  100 
men  lying  at  length  on  their  l)acks  on  the  grass,  sleeping. 

My  guide  informed  me  they  were  "out-of-works,"  most  of  them,  men 
who  lacked  the  price  of  a  lodging  and  probably  of  a  meal.  The  fact 
that  they  were  permitted  to  sleep  in  the  public  park  struck  me  force- 
fully; since  in  most  American  cities  such  men  are  expected  to  sleep 
standing  or  to  snatch  a  nap  while  "moving  on"  ;il  cotninand  of  a  well- 
fed  policeman. 

49 


That  feature  of  London  life  which  seemed  to  me  most  significant, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  a  student  of  municipal  services,  was  the 
motor  omnibus  system.  The  trams,  owned  and  operated  by  the  London 
City  Council,  have  never  been  able  to  obtain  from  the  City  of  London 
(that  small  municipality  which  is  at  the  heart  of  the  vast  group  of 
sister  cities  constituting  the  world's  metropolis)  a  franchise  to  lay 
rails  and  run  cars  there. 

Thus  the  public  tram  system  is  unable  to  deliver  its  passengers  from 
suburban  districts  into  the  heart  of  the  great  city,  where  scores  of 
thousands  of  them  have  their  daily  work.  Crippled  thus,  the  tram 
system  has,  nevertheless,  as  Sir  John  Benn  points  out,  been  able  to  give 
a  service  unmatched  in  volume,  and  seldom  surpassed  in  cheapness, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  has  thus  far  kept  financially  sound. 

The  London  General  Omnibus  Company,  operating  over  3,400  big 
double-decked  omnibuses,  motor  driven,  is  privately  owned.  Its  cars, 
each  capable  of  seating  about  forty  passengers,  have  several  advan- 
tages over  street  cars.  The  omnibus  comes  to  the  sidewalk,  at  fixed 
intervals,  to  take  on  and  discharge  its  passengers.  They  thus  avoid 
the  hazard  of  going  to  the  middle  of  a  crowded  street  to  enter  a  tram. 
When  traffic  blockades  a  street  and  the  tram  is  forced  to  halt  for  two 
or  five  minutes,  the  omnibus,  not  being  confined  to  a  pair  of  rails, 
either  worms  its  way  through  the  jam  like  an  ordinary  motor  car  or  it 
circles  around  the  block  and  gets  forward  without  delay. 

The  owners  of  the  motor  omnibus  are  spared  the  vast  initial  capital 
outlay  for  trackage  and  power  houses,  trolleys  and  other  necessities  of 
tram  traffic,  and  thus  have  no  need  to  earn  interest  upon  such  invest- 
ment. 

All  they  need  is  a  system  of  good,  permanent  roads  and  streets  to 
nm  on,  the  same  as  a  farm  wagon,  a  carriage  or  an  automobile.  It  is 
a  fact,  I  think  a  very  significant  fact,  that  during  the  first  ten  months 
of  1912  the  earnings  of  the  London  General  Omnibus  Company  showed 
a  gain,  over  the  same  months  in  1911,  of  £594,000,  or  almost 
$3,000,000,  while  the  earnings  of  the  mimicipally  owned  tram  system 
during  the  same  period  showed  a  decline  of  several  thousand  pounds  as 
compared  with  1911. 

The  omnibus  company's  gain  was  due  in  large  part  to  extension  of 
service,  many  new  cars  being  put  on,  but  it  goes  without  saying  that 
the  service  would  not  have  been  extended,  with  private  capital  footing 
the  bills,  unless  it  had  made  good  as  a  service  and  as  an  investment. 
There  is  no  denying  the  superior  attractions  of  an  omnibus  over  the 
tram.  Moreover,  the  omnibuses  have  been  given  permission  by  the 
several  cities  which  constitute  the  metropolis  to  run  on  any,  or  almost 
any,  street  which  they  may  wish  to  use,  whereas  the  trams  are  con- 
fined to  relatively  a  few  streets. 

I  rode  away  out  into  the  country,  in  several  directions,  on  omni- 
buses, for  a  maximum  fare  of  eightpence,  or  16  cents,  each  way.  Eiding 
atop  of  an  omnibus  one  gets  a  perfect  view  of  the  city  and  the  people, 

50 


gets  fresh  air,  gets  a  sense  of  free  motion  not  obtainable  in  a  tram  con- 
fined to  a  track,  and,  above  all,  escapes  the  grinding  racket  inseparable 
from  the  operation  of  heavy,  iron-wheeled  cars  over  steel  rails. 

John  C.  Mitchell,  secretary  of  the  London  General  Omnibus  Com- 
pany, informed  me  that  the  cost  of  a  motor  omnibus  is  "in  the  neigh- 
borhood" of  £700,  or  about  $3,500;  that  the  fare  averages  something 
less  than  one  penny  (two  cents  American)  per  mile. 

He  did  not  give  me  desired  information  on  the  cost  per  mile  per 
passenger  of  operating  the  omnibuses,  but  the  fact  that  the  two  cents' 
a  mile  charged  for  riding  enables  the  company  to  extend  its  service  so 
rapidly,  and  the  further  fact  that  the  stock  of  the  company  is  rising 
in  market  value  almost  as  rapidly  as  its  service  is  extended,  despite  the 
public  tram  competition,  indicates  very  clearly  that  there  is  a  consid- 
erable margin  of  profit  for  the  company  in  the  two  cents  per  mile. 

During  September  the  London  papers  published  many  articles  dis- 
cussing the  competition  of  privately  owned  omnibuses  with  publicly 
owned  trams.  It  has  been  freely  predicted  that  the  public  tram  sys- 
tem would  have  to  be  abandoned,  as  a  dead  loss,  because  it  could  not 
compete  with  the  omnibuses. 

Tliis  is,  of  course,  absurd,  because  traffic  in  London  is  subject  to 
frequent  congestion,  even  with  all  the  marvelous  service  of  trams,  omni- 
buses and  the  vast  underground  tube  system,  which  collects  hundreds 
of  millions  of  fares  each  year  and  bears  one  at  express  train  speed 
long  distances  below  the  level  of  the  city. 

Defenders  of  municipal  ownership — and  these  include  not  only  or 
principally  the  radicals,  but  also  some  of  the  strongest  conservatives — 
retort  by  saying  it  may  become  necessary  for  the  London  County 
Council  to  take  over  the  motor  omnibus  service,  and  make  it  an  ad- 
junct of  the  tram  system,  for  the  public  rather  than  for  private  profit. 

This  probably  is  what  will  be  done,  after  the  conservative  British 
mind  has  been  satisfied  that  the  private  citizens  who  first  made  the 
omnibus  service  available  have  been  fairly  compensated  for  their  enter- 
prise and  their  courage. 

This  letter,  written  looking  backward  toward  London  after  the 
writer  has  spent  twenty  days  in  half  a  dozen  German  cities,  must  con- 
clude with  the  observation  that  British  cities — or  rather  the  British 
central  government,  which  largely  dominates  the  administration  of 
British  cities — are  making  rapid  progress  in  an  attempt  to  catch  up 
witli  the  advances  made  l^y  the  cities  of  Germany  during  tliirty  years 
past. 

The  letters  dealing  with  German  cities,  coming  next  in  order,  will  em- 
phasize, probably,  this  the  chief  lesson  which  American  cities  seeking 
efficient  government  have  to  loam  in  Germany:  that  they  must  some- 
how procure  continuity  of  administrative  policy;  must  obtain  the 
serv-ico  of  trained  municipal  experts;  must  make  it  possible  for  such 
men  to  look  forward  to  life  careers  in  such  service,  well  paid  and  sus- 
tainf'd.  as  they  are  in  Germany,  by  honorable  Inidilions  and  public 
confidence. 

61 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Ixterxatioxal  Municipal  Congress  in  Dusseldorf. 

Dusseldorf,  Germany. — This  place  is  commonl}'  termed  "the  model 
city  of  Germany."'  It  is  one  of  a  group  of  large  cities,  separated  from 
each  other  by  only  a  few  miles,  which  owe  their  rapid  growth  and  pros- 
perity to  the  development  of  the  German  steel  industry  in  the  north- 
western quarter  of  the  empire.  During  the  last  week  of  September 
Dusseldorf  entertained  an  international  congress  of  municipalities. 

There  were  present  more  than  350  delegates  from  large  cities' 
throughout  the  world.  The  convention  was  incidental  to  the  Pan- 
German  municipal  exposition,  which  was  in  progress  in  Dusseldorf 
during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1912. 

This  exposition  was  fairly  stunning  in  its  exhibition  of  the  modern 
art  of  procuring,  on  small  bits  of  city  land,  the  maximum  of  housing 
space,  of  light,  air,  grass,  shrubbery,  trees,  view — in  general,  of  indi- 
vidual comfort  plus  social  charm. 

Here  were  scores  of  models,  in  relief,  of  German  cities,  with  every 
street,  every  building,  every  wall  and  gateway,  reproduced  in  miniature. 
In  these  models  was  exhibited  the  transformation  of  mediaeval  towns 
into  modern  cities. 

Dusseldorf's  slow  forward  march  of  more  than  a  thousand  years  to 
the  last  quarter  of  the  Nineteenth  century  could  be  read  in  the  minia- 
ture representation  of  the  city  far  more  readily  than  in  any  printed 
page.     City  planning  was  tlie  chief  theme  of  the  exposition. 

The  treniondous  event  of  our  time  is  the  vast  migration,  common 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  of  uncounted  millions  of  people  from 
the  farms  and  viUages  into  the  cities  where  capital,  utilizing  inventive 
skill,  has  assembled  the  huge  machines  of  modern  collective  industry. 

America  and  Great  Britain  have  done  little,  as  yet,  through  their 
governmental  agencies,  to  control  the  conditions  of  this  migration,  or 
to  protect  the  mighty  army  of  farm  and  village  folk  against  untoward 
treatment  in  their  new  environment. 

In  the  l*]nglish-sj)eaking  countries  the  change  has  Ijeeii  allowed  to 
be  controlled  by  the  law  of  private  profit  almost  exclusively,  with  little 
or  no  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  individual  worker  or  for  the  orderly 
develojjinent  of  the  city. 

With  us,  where  individual  initiative  in  the  organization,  location  and 
dovclo[)inent  of  industries  and  in  [)lanning  new  city  additions,  are  vir- 
tually unrestricted  by  any  contrnjling  miniicipal  inlelligiMiee,  there  has 
been  a  larger  and  freer  field  of  opportunity  for  individuals  to  rise  from 

53 


poverty  to  affluence  and  power,  but  there  has  been,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  lower  average  of  health  and  comfort  for  the  masses,  employed  in 
these  industries,  who  lacked  ability  to  lift  themselves  above  the  general 
level  of  useful  wage  labor. 

Taking  the  larger  American  cities  collectively,  and  it  is  a  moderate 
statement  of  truth  to  say  that  in  these  cities  at  least  three  or  four 
million  men,  women  and  children  wage  earners,  decent,  industrious 
people,  are  housed  under  conditions  so  adverse  to  their  own  health  and 
to  the  social  welfare  than  these  conditions  would  not  be  permitted  to 
exist  in  any  modern  German  city  longer  than  it  would  take  for  the 
mimicipal  government  to  condemn  the  land,  tear  down  the  houses  and 
erect  new  buildings  better  fitted  for  human  habitation. 

Germans,  in  short,  have  been  first  among  civilized  people  to  recog- 
nize that  with  the  passing  of  hand  tools,  used  by  their  owners  in  small 
shops  in  villages  and  on  farms,  and  the  rise  of  huge  industrial  ma- 
chines in  factory  cities,  a  new  set  of  human  problems  was  presented 
for  solution. 

And  the  Germans,  with  characteristic  thoroughness,  have  advanced 
far  beyond  any  other  people  in  finding  a  solution  for  this  problem — the 
problem  of  providing  an  environment  for  the  vast  army  of  factory 
workers,  in  their  new  city  homes,  which  should  assure  their  efficiency 
as  wealth  producers  by  assuring  to  them  healthful  living  conditions. 

Probably  had  the  Germans  been,  like  the  Americans,  a  nation  of 
political  equals,  with  universal  manhood  suffrage,  electing  city  govern- 
ments new  every  two  years,  with  a  newspaper  press  (too  often  serving 
selfish  private  interests),  and  enjoying  extraordinary  freedom  to  make 
and  break  those  city  governments,  they  would  not  have  done  much  if 
any  better  than  we  have  done. 

It  is  pretty  clearly  apparent  that  government,  in  any  land,  any  time, 
is  and  must  be  the  reflex  of  the  character,  the  temperament  and  the 
political  status  of  the  people. 

With  vastly  larger  individual  political  freedom  than  the  Germans, 
the  American  has  made  a  rank  foozle  of  modern  city  building  as  com- 
pared with  the  German.  Here  even  more  than  in  Great  Britain 
government  is  the  concern  of  a  ruling  class;  it  is  handed  down  to  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  people,  paternally. 

We  could  no  more  adopt  the  system  under  which  the  Germans  have 
obtained  such  wonderful  results  in  city  building  than  we  could  all  fly 
to  heaven  in  a  group  at  a  given  signal. 

We  Americans  have  the  kind  of  government  (subject  to  frequent 
slight  modifications)  that  we  want  and  as  good  government  as  we 
deserve.  Under  the  German  system,  government,  and  especially  mu- 
nicipal government,  being  a  profession,  for  which  men  of  the  upper 
classes  undergo  rigorous  special  training  and  serve  long  apprentice- 
ships, the  man  of  the  rank  and  file  has  little  or  no  incentive  to  ambi- 
tion in  this  field. 

54 


He  takes  what  is  given  to  him  and  asks  few  questions.  He  enjoys  the 
blessings  of  that  form  of  government  which  has,  unquestionably,  been 
described  as  the  best,  namely,  benevolent  despotism.  City  oflficials  in 
Germany,  from  lowest  to  highest,  are  not  public  servants,  but  public 
oflScials.  The  suggestion  that  they  are  public  servants  would  be  in- 
dignantly resented.  They  govern,  and  if  they  also  serve  it  is  as  a 
father  serves  his  children. 

While  we  Americans  can  not  hope  to,  nor  should  we  wish  to,  trans- 
plant paternalism  to  our  soil,  we  can,  and  should,  learn  from  German 
cities  many  valuable  lessons  in  planning  and  administering  municipal 
services. 

America  was  represented  at  the  international  municipal  congress 
in  Dusseldorf  by  only  four  men — three  from  Xew  York,  one  from 
Houston. 

The  Xew  York  delegates  were  Messrs.  Bruere  and  Sheppardson  of 
the  bureau  of  municipal  research,  a  privately  endowed  institution  which 
is  doing  a  most  valuable  work  in  studying  and  reporting  upon  the 
government  of  American  cities',  and  by  Mr.  Frank  Koester,  a  consult- 
ing engineer,  who  read  a  paper  on  "City  Planning  in  America." 

It  is  my  deliberate  judgment  that  at  least  fifty  of  our  large  American 
cities  ought  to  have  been  represented  at  this  congress  by  their  best 
engineering  experts;  Houston  should  have  been  represented,  not  by  a 
journalist  ignorant  of  engineering,  but  by  a  technical  man  competent 
to  grasp,  assimilate  and  bring  back  home  the  essential  features  of  the 
exhibit  displayed  in  the  exposition,  and  of  the  addresses  delivered  in 
the  sessions  of  the  congress. 

Nevertheless,  while  unable  to  perform  this  service  for  my  city,  I  feel 
that  my  attendance  on  the  convention  and  the  exposition  was  not  wholly 
a  waste  of  time  and  money,  because  I  can  at  least  emphasize,  from  the 
viewpoint  of  the  fairly  well  informed  lay  citizen,  the  wisdom  of  send- 
ing better  qualified  men  to  such  congresses  and  expositions  hereafter. 

There  were  largo  delegations  from  most  of  the  principal  cities  of 
Great  Britain;  Ghisgow  n<)tal)Iy  was  represented  by  iier  lord  provost 
(mayor),  her  town  clerk,  two  or  three  coimcillors,  an  engineer  and  a 
representative  of  her  health  department. 

I  have  written  to  President  Edgar  Odell  Ijovett  of  the  Rice  Institute, 
urging  him  to  establish  in  our  great  college  a  cliair  or  a  bureau  of 
iiiuiiicij»al  engineering  and  administration,  so  that  we  may  have,  at 
lionie,  at  least  one  institution  in  wliidi  young  iiicii  can  pn'|tan'  tlieni- 
pelveH  for  expert  city  service. 

I  do  not  know  to  what  extent  .Knicrican  colleges  have  recognized 
the  importance  of  this  modern  field  of  research,  but  am  informed  by 
one  who  should  know  that  it  has  been  very  generally  neglected  by  them. 
It  seems  to  me  no  other  dcfiartment  of  our  coiiiiinin  life  olfers  a  larger 
opportnnitv  [ny  n-eful   ln-l  riK  (idri  fli;m  this  one. 

55 


Tlie  one  outstanding  advantage  possessed  by  European  cities,  which 
we  in  American  cities  can  obtain  without  departing  from  the  dem- 
ocratic spirit  of  our  existing  city  governments,  is  continuity  of  admin- 
istrative policy,  assured  by  continuity  of  service  l)y  trained  municipal 
experts. 

If  we  are  to  obtain  that  degree  of  scientific  efficiency,  and  considera- 
tion for  the  humane  housing  of  the  workers  which  are  apparent  every- 
where in  these  German  cities,  we  must  first  create  a  supply  of  trained 
men  to  draw  upon  for  such  administration. 

We  must  abandon  the  Jacksonian  ideal  of  rotation  in  office,  based 
upon  the  fallacious  idea  that  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office 
should  be  "passed  around  among  the  boys,"  and  must  make  it  possible 
for  trained  men  to  aspire  to  life  careers  in  municipal  service. 

It  must  be  made  possible,  in  brief,  for  the  people's  municipal  business 
houses  to  obtain  and  retain,  during  life  or  good  behavior,  the  service, 
increasingly  valuable  with  added  years  of  experience,  of  high  grade 
experts,  just  as  our  great  privately  owTied  business  corporations  obtain 
and  retain  the  service  of  such  men. 

Here  in  Germany,  where  the  service  of  the  municipalities  is  a  career 
of  honor,  the  standard  of  such  service  is  high.  Municipal  officials  are 
not  required  to  run  every  two  years  the  gauntlet  of  a  fierce  partisan 
or  personal  attack ;  they  are  paid  liberal  salaries ;  they  enjoy  a  measure 
of  freedom  of  action,  and  freedom  from  captious  and  ill-informed 
criticism,  in  administering  municipal  affairs,  far  beyond  anything  of 
the  kind  permitted  to  the  officials  of  any  American  city. 

For  example,  the  City  of  Dusseldorf  has  just  expended  $35,000  in  a 
competition  of  architects  for  the  privilege  of  supplying  that  city  with  a 
plan  for  its  future  development. 

The  plan  deemed  best  won  for  its  designer  a  first  prize  of  $5,000; 
for  the  second  best  a  prize  of  $3,750  was  awarded;  prizes  of  $2,500 
each  were  awarded  to  the  third  and  fourth,  $1,775  each  to  the  next 
two  men,  and  lesser  sums  for  several  other  plans.  In  addition  to  the 
prize  awards,  the  city  government  bought,  at  agreed  prices,  a  dozen 
or  more  additional  plans  which  were  submitted  in  the  competition. 

In  1880  Dusseldorf  had  94,000  inhabitants;  in  1911,  376,000.  In 
part  the  gain  was  due  to  the  enlarged  boundary  lines,  in  larger  part 
to  accretions  of  citizens  attached  to  new  industries.  Dusseldorf's  ex- 
pansion has  been  rigidly  controlled  by  the  municipal  government. 
Companies  are  not  permitted  to  locate  factories  where  they  please. 

Such  institutions  must  be  located  where  they  will  best  fit  into  the 
general  city  scheme  adopted  by  the  city  government,  and  adopted,  please 
keep  in  mind,  with  a  view  solely  to  safeguarding  the  health  of  the 
workers  and  to  procuring  the  maximimi  of  l)eauty  for  the  city  as  a 
whole.  Xoble  land  and  water  parks  (the  Rhine  flows  through  Dus- 
seldorf) adorn  the  center  of  the  city;  boulevards  nm  out  into  every 
section,  dotted  with  minor  playground  and  small  park  rest  and  recrea- 
tion places. 

56 


The  effect  of  the  whole  is  to  minister  not  only  to  the  health  and  com- 
fort of  the  masses  of  the  people,  but  to  educate  them  in  the  appreciation 
of  beauty. 

The  Dusseldorf  city  government,  in  conducting  a  competition  for 
plans  for  further  expansion  of  the  municipality,  wished  to  get  the  best 
expert  aid.  in  planning  such  expansion.  It  is  believed  the  city  will 
have  half  a  million  inhabitants  in  another  twenty-five  years,  and  the 
city  government  wished  to  make  sure  that  the  new  growth  shall  har- 
monize with  the  general  plan  now  in  effect. 

Xone  of  the  fifteen  or  sixteen  city  plans  bought  by  the  city  govern- 
ment will  be  followed  entire.  The  government  in  council  will  after 
discussion  adopt  a  plan  composed  of  parts  of  all  the  plans  which  were 
bought,  and  this  general  plan,  the  net  result  of  the  competition,  will 
not  be  made  public. 

As  rapidly  as  it  becomes  necessary  for  the  city  government  to  buy 
lands  for  parks,  for  municipal  housing,  and  for  other  purposes,  to  keep 
pace  with  industrial  development  in  new  districts  set  apart  for  that 
purpose,  a  special  secret  committee  of  the  council,  representing  the 
administration,  will  make  such  purchases,  without  publicity,  in  order 
that  land  owners  may  not  know  it  is  the  city  which  is  buying  and  that 
prices  may  therefore  not  be  raised  too  high. 

Officials  of  cities  in  Britain  and  in  Germany  tell  me  this  secrecy  is  a 
necessary  precaution,  since  it  is  the  custom  of  land  owners  to  "gouge" 
the  cities  as  much  as  possible  when  occasion  offers. 

The  cities  have,  of  course,  power  to  condemn  lands  for  various  uses, 
but  they  have  learned  from  experience  that  condemnation  proceedings 
are  more  costly  than  private  and  secret  purchases  made  in  the  manner 
indicated. 

Houston  papers  just  to  hand  indicate  local  dissatisfaction  with  the 
way  in  which  privately  owned  public  service  corporations  repair  city 
pavements  which  they  have  torn  up  in  order  to  improve  or  extend  their 
underground  equipment. 

It  may  be  worth  noting,  in  this  connection,  that  it  is  the  all  but  uni- 
versal practice,  in  German  and  British  cities,  for  the  city  government 
to  open  the  paving  in  such  cases,  and  to  make  the  subsequent  ro]:)airs, 
charging  the  cost  to  the  privately  owned  corporation,  l)ut  not  ]iormitting 
that  corporation  to  touch  the  paving  on  its  own  account. 


57 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Hamburg  a  Proof  of  Germax  Initiative. 

Hamburg,  Germany. — All  the  big  cities  of  Germany  are  "special 
charter"  cities.  There  is  no  set  of  imperial  rules  regulating  or  setting 
bounds  to  municipal  administration  in  the  German  Empire.  There 
are  twenty-six  states  composing  the  Empire.  These  states  range  in 
political  character  from  the  absolute  monarchy  like  Prussia  (which 
by  sheer  bulk  overshadows  and  dominates  the  other  twenty-five  states 
in  imperial  affairs)  up  to  the  city  republics  (so-called)  of  Hamburg, 
Bremen  and  Lubeck,  which  are  sovereign  states  (in  domestic  affairs) 
like  the  states  of  the  American  Union.  In  two  or  three  of  the  lesser 
kingdoms  the  crown  still  literally  owns  everything,  and,  potentially, 
everybody.  In  none  of  the  German  states  is  there  anything  like  the 
democratic  equality  of  the  American  electorate.  Government,  and 
especially  municipal  government,  even  in  the  free  cities  of  Hamburg, 
Luljeck  and  Bremen,  is  shared  in  only  by  the  taxpayers  and  by  most 
of  them  indirectly.  Government  is  regarded  as  a  business  for  quali- 
fied experts,  the  members  of  the  upper  classes  who  alone  receive  the 
educational  training  essential  to  meet  its  requirements. 

I  spent  three  days  in  Hamburg,  visiting  its  remarkably  beautiful 
land  and  water  parks,  studying  its  form  of  government  and  touring 
its  magnificent  barbor,  the  largest  in  Europe,  in  a  motor  boat. 

I  have  sent  to  the  Houston  Public  Library,  to  be  framed  and  hung 
there,  three  panoramic  views  of  Hamburg's  most  striking  municipal 
improvements.  I  advise  all  Houstonians  who  entertain  any  vision  of 
a  future  "Houston  beautiful"'  to  visit  the  library  and  study  these  views. 
It  will  probably  make  you  homesick  for  the  future,  at  first,  as  it  did 
me,  but  it  will  undoubtedly  afford  light  on  the  path  for  us  all. 

I  suppose  there  is  no  more  lovely  night  vista  on  earth — at  least 
none  in  any  city — than  the  prospect  of  the  Alster  basin  from  the  upper 
windows  of  the  Hamburgerhof  or  the  Atlantic,  magnificent  hotels 
which  stand  just  across  the  main  street  of  the  city  from  the  basin,  and 
facing  it.  Looking  from  my  fifth-floor  room  onto  the  basin,  at  i)  p.  m., 
I  saw  a  fairyland  of  water  dotted  with  snuiU  pleasure  steamers, 
electric  launches  electrically  lighted,  white-winged  sailing  yachts,  row- 
boats  and  canoes,  all  moving  hither  and  thither,  in  and  out,  like  a 
throng  of  fireflies  and  night  moths.  A  handsome,  huge  cafe,  bril- 
liantly lighted  and  filled  with  pleasure-seekers,  jutted  into  the  basin 
on  a  long  pier  projecting  from  the  street,  while  an  orchestra  ministered 
to  the  Germanic  love  of  music  with  Mueiichner  beer  and  kalbsbraten. 

59 


The  Alster  basiu  was  mostly  man-made;  the  low  flat  tlirough  which 
the  Kiver  Alster  flowed  into  the  mighty  Elbe  was  dredged  out,  trans- 
forming it  into  lakes  which  adorn  the  center  of  the  great  city  as  noth- 
ing else  conceivable  by  man  could  adorn  it. 

Hamburg  harbor  has  six  vast  basins,  cut  at  large  cost  back  from  the 
banks  of  the  Kiver  Elbe.  There  are  at  all  times  hundreds  of  vessels, 
large  and  small,  in  these  basins.  Hamburg,  like  Houston,  lies  more 
than  fifty  miles  inland  from  the  sea,  on  a  river  channel,  thus  having 
security  against  storms  for  its  shipping  and  for  its  vast  rail  terminals. 
Some  day  Houston,  like  Hamburg,  will  possess  half  a  dozen  huge  inland 
shipping  basins,  on  either  bank  of  its  ship  channel.  Mayor  Eice's 
recently  published  suggestion  that  the  City  of  Houston  (or  a  Houston 
harbor  district)  should  as  early  as  possible  obtain  ownership  of  a  strip 
of  land  on  either  side  of  our  ship  channel,  is  sound  counsel.  It  is  in 
line  with  his  policy  for  eight  years  past,  which  more  than  any  other 
single  factor  has  resulted  in  carrying  Houston  forward  to  her  destiny, 
which  is  to  become  one  of  the  world's  great  seaport  cities.  These 
great  man-made  river  seaports  of  Germany  have  had  to  obtain  such 
ownership  (likewise  the  numerous  big  river  ports  along  the  Rhine, 
the  Elbe  and  the  \Ves?r)  in  order  to  open  the  way  on  favorable  terms 
for  the  entrance  of  railroad  connections  and  for  new  industries  to 
make  use  of  the  shipping  facilities  thus  provided  by  the  cities. 

The  one  fact  above  all  others  which  this  voyage  of  discovery  drives 
home  to  me  is  that  Houston  can  never  again  afford  to  listen  to  the 
counsels  of  the  shortsighted,  of  those  who  are  unable  to  understand 
the  mighty  demands  laid  upon  us  by  our  situation  commanding  the 
southern  (and  through  the  Panama  Canal  the  western)  sea  routes 
for  nearly  one-third  of  the  continental  United  States.  We  have  gigan- 
tic tasks  ahead  of  us.  Whether  or  not  we  adopt  any  part  of  the  German 
system  of  municipal  government  we  must — there  is  no  escape  from  it 
— make  up  our  minds  to  spend  tens  of  millions  of  dollars  of  borrowed 
money  during  the  next  dozen  years,  laying,  in  land  and  water,  the 
civic  foimdations  for  a  city  of  a  million  people  which  we  shall  become 
within  fifty  years. 

These  astounding  modern  industrial  cities  of  Germany  are  more 
heavily  bonded  in  proportion  to  population,  than  any  of  the  American 
cities.  They  assume  burdens  of  debt  for  borrowed  capital,  to  be  in- 
vested in  revenue-producing  and  industry-stimulating  public  works, 
which  outclass  even  the  vast  bond  issue  made  by  Los  Angeles  to  bring 
a  river  150  miles  down  from  the  mountains  to  fill  its  water  maias. 
These  German  cities,  notwithstanding  their  long  historic  past,  are 
today  the  youngest,  most  virile,  most  daring,  most  farsighted  munici- 
palities on  earth,  and  I  do  not  except  the  best  of  our  American  cities 
when  I  set  dovra  that  posititve  statement.  There  are  no  pikers  in  the 
list  of  them. 

I  have  been  told,  for  years,  by  travelers  and  in  books  dealing  with 
modern  Germany — several  such  books,  the  best  obtainable,  now  on  my 
work  table,  repeat  the  sage  statement — that  the  German  people  'Tiave 

60 


little  or  no  initiative/"  individually.  Having  read  and  heard  that 
statement  so  often,  on  such  apparently  excellent  authority,  I  accepted 
it  and  started  in  to  study  the  German  organization  of  life  from  that 
viewpoint. 

After  a  month  in  the  country,  I  am  convinced  no  statement  ever 
made  was  further  from  the  truth.  The  Germans  possess  individual 
initiative  plus — more  than  any  other  people  1  have  ever  seen.  Their 
initiative  is  lifting  them  irresistibly  upward  through  an  adaman- 
tine crust  of  political  officialdom,  toward  a  full  measure  of  work- 
able personal  liberty.  It  is  substituting  for  the  age-old  scholastic 
servitude  of  modern  minds  to  Greek  and  Latin  classics  the  universal, 
slirewd  and  thorough  study  of  the  earth  we  live  on  and  the  life  of  our 
own  times.  It  is  giving  elfect  (in  the  creation  and  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  material  wealth)  to  the  mighty  visions  of  the  poets  and  phil- 
osophers of  the  classic  age  of  the  German  people.  It  is  producing  a 
people  who  stand  and  walk  erect  almost  without  exception,  who  breathe 
deeply,  who  dress  neatly,  work  long  and  sturdily  and  live  with  wise 
economy,  and  who  front  life  with  magnificent  confidence  in  the  future 
of  their  nation.  It  is  making  their  cities  centers  of  artistic  beauty 
which  attract  increasing  thousands  of  visitors  and  permanent  resi- 
dents from  all  the  other  lands  on  earth.  It  is  assuring  to  every  cliild 
in  Germany  several  years  of  practical  public  free  education — education 
for  living  now  and  here,  and  it  is  providing  for  the  sons  of  the  well-to- 
do,  who  can  bear  a  part  of  the  extra  cost,  higher  education  in  every 
branch  of  applied  science  inferior  to  none  given  elsewhere.  If  the 
Germans  have  apparently  surrendered  a  part  of  their  individual  ini- 
tiative in  the  organization  and  administration  of  their  municipal  gov- 
ernments (or  have  failed  as  yet  to  claim  that  full  measure  of  indi- 
vidual participation  in  such  governments  that  they  have  asserted  in 
other  departments  of  their  common  life),  why,  in  this  more  than  in 
any  other  way,  they  have  demonstrated  their  possession  of  individual 
initiative — because  they  have  made  this  concession,  with  open  eyes, 
in  recognition  of  its  wisdom,  on  their  own  initiative. 

Some  French  and  English  critics  have  discovered  that  the  German 
people  lack  the  quality  of  charm.  Using  that  word  to  express  the 
quality  which  in  France  and  England  is  known  as  charm,  this  may  be 
a  true  criticism,  in  degree;  it  probably  is.  But  the  German  people, 
and  the  average  German  individual  of  the  creative  and  masterful  type, 
possesses  another  kind  of  charm — tlie  charm  that  inlieres  in  creative 
genius,  in  power,  in  common  sense  applied  to  practical  affairs.  If 
Kipling  could  forget  his  prejudice,  he  is  precisely  the  one  man  living 
who  could  do  full  Justice  to  this  dominant  quality  of  the  German  char- 
acter. Individual  initiative  has  enabled  the  German  people,  thirty 
years  ahead  of  any  other,  to  lead  the  world  in  the  work  of  minimizing 
human  risk  in  inchistry,  in  abolishing  the  worker's  fear  of  want  in  age 
by  working  out  a  vast  system  of  sick,  death  and  out-of-work  benefits 
and  old-age  insurance,  thus  reducing  tremendously  the  (piantity  of 
preventable  and  deplorable  involuntary  poverty.  That  precisely,  as 
Theodore  Koosevelt  has  been  telling  his  countrymen  during  the  cam- 

61 


paign  now  past,  is  the  next  big  problem  which  must  be  undertaken  by 
prodigally  wasteful  America,  and  we  should  thank  our  stars  that  we 
have,  to  light  us  on  the  way,  the  exajiiple  afforded  by  this  remarkable 
people  who,  their  critics  assure  us,  "possess  no  individual  initiative." 

Some  readers  may  wonder  just  what  such  generalizations  as  the  fore- 
going have  to  do  with  a  study  of  municipal  government.  The  answer 
is  that  we  can't  understand  how  the  German  people  got  the  wonderful 
results  they  did  unless  we  partially  at  least  understand  the  character 
of  the  people.  The  situation  here  implies  leadership  amounting  to 
genius,  plus  a  rank  and  file  sufficiently  intelligent  to  submit  to  regi- 
mentation— socialization — for  the  individual  and  the  common  good. 
Until  we  become  intelligent  to  that  degi'ee  we  shall  probably  not  obtain 
any  svich  results  from  our  city  governments  as  have  been  obtained  by 
the  cities  of  Germany.  We  at  home  are  all  born  sovereigns — poten- 
tially— and  never  forget  the  fact.  The  Germans  are  all  born  workers 
— even  the  emperor's  sons  are  each  required  to  learn  a  useful  trade 
(the  crown  prince  is  a  carpenter  and  said  to  be  a  mighty  good  one,  the 
kaiser  a  bookbinder) — and  they  never  forget  it.  The  Germans  are  so 
far  from  being  ashamed  of  trade  that  they  glory  in  it.  It  is  their  en- 
grossing interest — the  creation  and  diffusion  of  new  wealth.  They 
begin  work  early  in  the  day,  they  keep  at  it  steadily,  without  undue 
speeding  up ;  they  knock  off  work  for  a  couple  of  hours  at  midday,  and 
they  go  back  to  it  and  stay  at  it  until  supper  time,  with  few  exceptions. 
Their  evenings  and  Sundays  and  their  relatively  few  holidays'  are 
social  opportunities  fully  utilized.  Very  sanely,  too,  with  little  ap- 
parent excess.  I  wish  we  had  their  cafe  life  transplanted  to  our 
Southern  cities,  where  the  mild  climate,  and,  I  think  but  am  not  quite 
certain,  the  temperament  of  our  jDeople  are  most  favorable  for  it.  I 
hope  to  see  it  introduced — not  gaudily  and  expensively  but  modestly 
and  within  reach  of  the  purses  of  all  our  people — into  Houston  in  the 
near  future.  We  lack  entertainments  accessible  to  the  majority,  such 
as  one  finds  provided  by  municipal  governments  on  every  hand  in  the 
German  cities.  Our  municipal  auditorium  free  concerts  and  our  park 
band  concerts  have  made  a  notable  and  commendable  beginning  in 
this  field. 

Municipal  government  in  Germany  is  an  evolution  from  the  me- 
diaeval system  in  which  the  overlord  o'mied  everything  and  everybody. 
Today  the  people's  city  governments,  exercising  a  part  of  the  ancient 
landlord's  vanished  powers  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  community, 
performs  functions  which  in  America  are  left  to  profit-seeking  indi- 
viduals to  fulfill.  Thus,  the  City  of  Hamburg,  when  additional 
housing  space  is  needed  for  its  increasing  population,  buys  a  tract  of 
suburban  land,  plats  it  artistically,  and  with  a  view  to  obtaining  the 
maximum  of  health  and  comfort  for  its  future  inhabitants,  and  sells 
lots  at  auction,  stipulating  that  houses  built  thereon  shall  comply  with 
regulations  fixed  by  the  government,  and  shall  cost  not  less  than  a 
stated  amount,  dependent  of  course  upon  the  character  of  the  addi- 
tion. 

62 


Hamburg  some  years  ago  surrendered  its  right  of  free  trade  to  the 
German  imperial  customs  union,  receiving  in  payment  therefor  several 
millions  of  dollars  which  it  invested  in  extensions  of  its  harbor  facil- 
ities. The  city-state  retains  a  portion  of  its  early  free  trade  rights. 
Most  of  its  harbor  basins  are  lined  with  huge  warehouses  into  which 
foreign  goods  can  be  brought  for  storage,  without  payment  of  customs 
tariffs,  pending  their  transshipment  to  other  countries.  If  brought 
into  the  Empire,  these  goods  must  pay  the  German  imperial  customs 
duties.  This  system  enables  Hamburg  to  handle  a  vast  quantity  of 
commodities  at  minimimi  cost  to  manufacturers  and  shippers,  to  be- 
come, in  fact,  a  gigantic  warehouse  and  transshipping  point. 

My  trip  around  the  harbor  in  a  motor  boat  lays  over  anything  else 
I  ever  experienced,  as  a  sporting  proposition.  I  have  ridden  in  city 
taxis  (notably  through  the  narrow,  winding  streets  of  Xew  Orleans, 
at  forty  miles  an  hour,  with  my  scant  hair  standing  on  end),  and  have 
had,  in  earlier  days,  a  few  bone-breaking,  nerve-killing  experiences  on 
unladylike  horses ;  but  for  sheer  thrill  that  harumscarum  dash  in  and 
out  among  the  shipping  of  Hamburg  has  the  edge  on  city  taxicab, 
wild  horse  or  airship.  My  motor  boat  was  handled  by  a  young  fellow 
born  and  reared  in  Columbus,  Ga.,  who  said  he  proposed  to  give  me  a 
run  for  my  money,  he  was  so  tickled  to  see  anybody  from  Dixieland 
and  to  hear  the  speech  of  his  own  section.  The  harbor  was  uncom- 
monly rough  that  day,  big  tugs  were  racing  in  and  out,  up  and  down, 
past  us  and  across  our  bow,  and  the  way  we  ducked  and  dodged  and 
darted  in  between  and  aroxmd  them  afforded  as  complete  a  test  of  one's 
heart  action  as  anything  could  do.  At  times  nothing  much  more  than 
the  propeller  of  our  tiny  craft  was  in  the  water;  it  stood  on  its  nose 
and  on  its  hind  legs  like  a  wild  pony.  Again,  we  cut  in  between  two 
big  tugs,  racing  toward  us  in  opposite  directions,  and  so  close  together 
that  I  could  reach  out  a  hand  on  either  side  and  touch  their  bows. 
Two  seconds  delay  and  either  one  or  both  would  have  cut  us  down  like 
a  paper  box  and  sent  us  into  twenty-seven  feet  of  mighty  wet,  cold 
water.  We  went  past  big  dry  docks,  in  which  battleships  and  huge 
liners  were  taking  repairs,  and  circled  around  the  Imperator,  the 
50,000-ton  Hamburg-American  liner  which  is  expected  to  begin  service 
in  1913  and  give  Germany  the  blue  ribbon  of  the  high  seas,  out- 
classing the  32,000-ton  Cunarder  now  in  service  and  the  40,000-ton 
Cunarder  which  I  passed  in  the  stocks  at  Glasgow  when  sailing  up  the 
River  Clyde  from  Dublin.  The  same  company  has  laid  down  the  keel 
of  a  second  50,000-tonner,  the  Europa,  thus  affording  our  Scotch  and 
English  friends  a  mark  to  aim  at  in  future  efforts  to  regain  sea  su- 
premacy. The  Imperator  is  over  900  feet  long,  has  eight  decks  of 
cabins  up  and  four  more  to  build  whore  she  rides  the  water  like  a 
leviathan,  '      ■  l^"[ 

Some  day  our  children  and  our  grandchildren  will  see  a  develop- 
ment at  Houston  like  that  now  to  be  seen  in  Hamburg.  It  is  up  to  us 
now  on  the  ground  to  grasp  the  full  bigness  of  our  job,  which  is  to  get 
title  to  enough  pul)lic  land  for  foundations,  and  to  shape  at  least  the 
outlines  of  those  foundations  for  our  successors  to  build  upon. 

63 


CHAPTEE  X. 

Phases  of  Municipal  Admixistration  in  Hamburg. 

Hamburg,  Germany. — American  consuls  are  outposts  of  American 
trade,  chiefly.  Occasionally  a  consul,  of  the  abler  sort,  makes  a  valua- 
ble special  study  of  his  foreign  environment — not  the  formal  required 
"reports"  with  which  state  department  archives  are  laden,  but  a  keen 
and  illuminating  analysis  of  conditions.  Consul  Robert  P.  Skinner, 
American  representative  in  Hambiirg,  a  veteran  in  the  service  and 
rated  all  along  the  line  as  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  service,  was 
interested  in  Houston's  attempt  to  learn  from  the  experience  of  pro- 
gressive German  cities,  and  besides  promptly  indorsing  my  inquiries 
addressed  to  the  Hamburg  government  he  placed  at  our  city's  disposal 
copies  of  special  reports  which  he  had  written,  on  the  organization 
and  administration  of  affairs  in  Hamburg.  Inasmuch  as  Hamburg 
seems  to  me  most  like  of  all  the  European  cities  to  the  kind  of  city 
which  Houston  must  become,  I  include  two  of  these  brief  reports  in 
this  chapter,  so  that  they  may  be  studied  by  our  municipal  adminis- 
trators, and  by  our  citizens,  when  confronted  hereafter  with  problems 
like  those  which  have  been  Avholly  or  partially  Avorked  out  in  the  great 
German  seaport  city. 

The  Disposition  of  Garbage  in  Ilanihurg. — In  the  northern  and 
northwestern  sections  of  the  City  of  Hamburg,  garbage  and  house 
refuse  are  collected  and  carted  to  districts  beyond  the  city  boundaries 
to  be  spread  over  fields  and  eventually  to  be  plowed  under  as  fertilizing 
material;  while  in  the  central,  eastern  and  southern  boroughs,  includ- 
ing the  harbor,  such  material,  after  being  collected,  is  incinerated  in 
a  municipal  establishment  commonly  regarded  as  a  model  of  its  kind 
and  one  which  has  given  entire  satisfaction  during  the  entire  fourteen 
years  of  its  practical  use.  I  am  convinced  that  American  munici- 
palities can  study  ])rofitably  the  experience  of  Ilaiuhiirg  in  this  very 
important  matter. 

The  refuse  reduced  to  ashes  in  the  municipal  phiiit  is  conveyed 
thereto  in  four-wlieeled,  watertigiit,  iron  carts,  cacli  of  wbich  has  a 
capacity  of  about  four  cubic  meters.  The  cart  bodies  can  he  lifted 
from  the  wliecis  by  means  of  electrical  traveling  cranes,  and  the  con- 
tents discharged  directly  into  the  furnace.  There  are  thirty-six  of 
these  furnaces,  built  according  to  the  method  of  the  Ilorsl'all  Refuse 
Co.,  Ltd.,  of  Leeds,  England,  all  of  which  burn  continuously,  except 


when  they  require  cleaning.  Wlien  the  fires  are  once  started  no  com- 
mercial fuel  is  required  and,  therefore,  the  consumption  of  coal  in  the 
plant  is  insignificant. 

The  slag  is  removed  from  the  furnaces  in  small  iron  carts  and  con- 
veyed therein  to  a  cooling  apparatus,  where  the  contents  are  sprinkled 
witth  cold  water,  and  thence  to  the  slag  breakers,  which  are  capable 
of  producing  broken  slag  in  three  sizes  in  the  following  proportions: 
16%  passing  through  a  5  mm.  mesh  screen;  50%  passing  through  a 
35  mm.  mesh  screen ;  34%  passing  through  a  60  mm.  mesh  screen. 
An  electro-magnet  is  in  operation  in  connection  with  the  slag  breakers, 
and  it  removes  small  pieces  of  iron,  the  larger  pieces  having  been  re- 
moved from  the  refuse  before  passing  into  the  furnaces;  or,  if  such 
are  contained  in  the  slag,  they  are  thrown  out  of  the  rotary  sieve  drum 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  breaker. 

The  scrap  iron  recovered  is  sold  at  public  auction,  and  the  slag 
itself  is  disposed  of  at  a  fixed  price  of  23.8  cents  per  ton  of  1,000  kilos 
(2,200  pounds).  There  is  always  a  great  demand  for  this  slag,  for 
Vvhich  there  are  numerous  applications.  The  fine  cinders  are  used  as 
a  top  dressing  for  promenades,  the  coarser  grades  for  establishing  the 
drainage  foundation  of  roads,  and  the  middle  size  for  the  top  dressing 
of  the  roads.  Used  in  this  way,  garbage  slag  is  cheaper  than  any  sub- 
stitute material,  and  it  serves  its  purpose  perfectly.  It  is  used  very 
advantageously  in  mixing  concrete,  five  parts  of  coarse  slag,  one  part 
of  cement,  and  three  parts  of  sand  being  the  ordinary  proportions ;  or, 
one  part  of  cement  and  seven  parts  of  middle  sized  slag. 

The  very  fine  garbage  slag  may  be  utilized  wherever  coarse  sand  may 
be  used;  for  example,  to  form  a  bed  for  street  paving  blocks,  for  the 
manufacture  of  slag  bricks,  as  anti-slipping  material  on  city  streets 
in  winter;  as  filling  material  in  buildings  imder  floors  and  over  ceil- 
ings.   Many  other  applications  could  be  named. 

As  a  filling  material  between  floors  and  ceilings  this  slag  is  used 
very  extensively  in  the  docks  and  warehouses  of  Hamburg,  for  the 
particular  reason  that  it  is  absolutely  sterile  and,  unlike  other  kinds 
of  slag,  contains  no  sulphur  by  which  merchandise  in  storage  is  some- 
times damaged. 

The  garbage  incinerating  furnaces  furnish  sufficient  power  to  drive 
all  the  electrical  machinery  in  the  establishment  to  operate  the  cranes, 
slag  breakers  and  light  plant,  furnishing  also  electricity  for  the 
accumulators  of  an  electric  motor  launch,  and  an  electric  motor  cart 
used  in  the  transportation  of  garbage.  At  present  only  one  motor 
cart  is  in  use;  it  is  proposed  to  purchase  a  number  of  others,  so 
that  within  a  few  years  horses  will  be  eliminated  entirely  in  the 
handling  of  garbage. 

Such  city  garbage  as  is  not  burned  is  utilized,  frequently,  to  fill  up 
marshes  and  swamps,  as  well  as  for  fertilizing  purposes. 

Contracts  for  the  removal  of  garbage,  whether  for  destruction  by 
fire  or  for  other  disposition,  are  awarded  by  the  government  to  private 

66 


firms  upon  public  tenders  and  in  several  lots,  described  according  to 
the  distances  to  be  covered  in  transporting  the  refuse.  The  two  firms 
which,  for  years,  have  secured  such  contracts  are  F.  Schmidt,  210 
Steilshoperstrasse,  and  Messrs.  Baustian  and  Dreyer,  12  Lubecker- 
strasse.  These  firms  o^ti  the  necessary  horses  and  stables  and  rolling 
stock,  and  furnish  the  men;  the  carts  in  which  refuse  is  conveyed  to 
the  incinerating  plant  are  municipal  property  placed  at  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  contractors.  Having  very  considerable  outfits,  the  two 
firms  named  seem  also  to  control  the  transportation  of  sand,  gravel, 
paving  stones  and  bricks  within  the  city.  The  present  contracts  for 
the  removal  of  garbage  were  made  in  1905  for  a  period  of  five  years. 
The  city  pays  from  450  to  555  marks  ($107.10  to  $132.09),  according 
to  distance,  per  1,000  inhabitants  served.  (The  City  of  Hamburg 
has  a  population  of  895,80-1.)  Xew  contracts  were  made  this  year 
with  the  same  concerns,  according  to  which  the  contractors  will  re- 
ceive from  572  to  850  marks  ($136.13  to  $202.30)  per  1,000  inhabi- 
tants ;  but  these  contracts  are  to  run  for  two  years  only,  for  the  reason 
that  a  second  incinerating  plant  is  in  course  of  construction  and  will 
be  ready  for  use  within  two  years. 

The  new  destruction  plant  is  being  arranged  much  like  the  old  one 
except  that  the  experience  of  fourteen  years  has  been  utilized,  and  in- 
stead of  Horsfall  furnaces  the  so-called  Hamburger  ofen  will  be  em- 
ployed. The  new  ovens  are  not  unlike  the  Horsfall  ovens  but  are 
believed  to  have  been  improved  upon  to  such  an  extent  that  whereas 
the  Horsfall  furnaces  can  dispose  of  only  nine  tons  of  material  per 
twenty-four  hours,  the  new  ovens  will  dispose  of  from  twenty-two  to 
twenty-five  tons  during  the  same  period. 

Householders  in  Hamburg  are  required  to  provide  themselves  witli 
metal  receptacles  which  tliey  place  upon  the  curb  line,  usually  twice  a 
week,  between  8  and  9  o'clock  p.  m.  The  garbage  gatherers  empty  the 
cans  into  their  carts  between  9  p.  m.  and  the  early  morning  hours. 
The  cans  themselves  are  very  seldom  stolen,  and  it  is  possible,  and 
indeed  quite  common,  to  purchase  numbered  cans  from  private  firms 
which,  if  stolen,  are  replaced  by  the  insuring  firai. 

The  conditions  in  Hamburg  are  such  that  ordinary  householders  re- 
duce the  amount  of  garbage  to  be  carried  away  as  much  as  possible  by 
destroying  in  kitchen  stoves  everything  that  can  be  burned. 

The  Commercial  Planning  of  Ilamhurg. — The  agglomeration  of 
Hamburg  now  comprises  1,212,299  inhabitants,  thus  divided:  With- 
in the  political  limits  of  the  State  of  Hamburg,  977,144,  of  whom 
895,804  are  within  the  city  limits;  in  the  City  of  Altona,  whicli 
although  in  Prussia,  immediately  adjoins  Hamburg,  lG9,4fi4;  and  in 
Harburg,  Prussia,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Elbe,  65,G91. 

The  city  lies  at  the  junction  of  the  upper  and  lower  Elbe,  a  dis- 
tance of  seventy-five  nautical  miles  from  the  sea,  and  in  the  thousand 
years  of  its  history  has  become  the  chief  commercial  city  of  CJcrnumy. 
The  city  consists  of  an  ancient  town  in  whicli  many  of  the  streets  arc 
crooked  and  narrow,  and  which  grew  up  in  the  vicinity  of  the  port 

67 


where  now  the  chief  business  of  the  community  is  carried  on,  and  the 
vaster  and  newer  section  which  has  developed  on  both  sides  of  the 
Alster  river,  which  here  flows  into  the  Elbe.  As  the  Alster  widens 
to  the  proportions  of  two  large  lakes  where  it  traverses  the  City  of 
Hamburg,  the  result  has  been  that  the  residential  districts  lie  around 
the  shores  of  the  upper  lake,  so  that  the  general  aspect  of  the  city 
somewhat  resembles  that  of  Geneva,  upon  a  much  more  imposing  scale. 
From  the  Alster  lakes,  navigable  canals  extend  in  numerous  direc- 
tions, and  over  these  lakes  and  canals  a  very  large  and  probably  chief 
part  of  the  local  traffic  of  the  city,  both  freight  and  passenger,  is  car- 
ried on.  With  the  exception  of  Venice,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
city  in  the  world  possesses  a  system  of  water  routes  so  commonly  util- 
ized as  that  of  Hamburg. 

The  port  of  Hamburg  is  a  meeting  place  for  oceangoing  ships,  craft 
from  the  upper  Elbe,  canal  barges,  and  the  German  state  railway  sys- 
tem. Tracks,  wharves  and  warehouses  are  so  cleverly  constructed  as 
to  facilitate  the  rapid  and  economic  handling  of  the  vast  volume  of 
merchandise  which  passes  through  Hamburg,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
the  evidences  of  this  great  business  are  less  apparent  than  in  many 
similar  cities  which  are  less  well  organized. 

The  commercial  section  of  Hamburg  is  subdivided  into  two  divi- 
sions, in  one  of  which  free  trade  prevails,  while  in  the  other  the  ordi- 
nary taxing  system  of  the  Empire  is  in  full  application.  The  free  port, 
as  it  is  called,  is  the  last  vestige  of  the  ancient  free  city,  that  is  to  say, 
free  as  respects  goods  imported  therein.  Upon  the  organization  of  the 
Empire,  which  the  State  of  Hamburg  joined  as  a  constituent  member, 
it  became  necessary  to  abandon  the  policy  of  free  trade,  and  to  accept 
the  fiscal  system  of  the  union;  but,  in  order  to  protect  the  shipping 
business  of  the  city,  a  free  zone  was  set  aside  within  which  free  trade 
still  prevails.  For  the  physical  organization  of  the  free  port,  it  became 
necessary  to  remodel  the  harbor  entirely.  A  population  of  thousands 
of  people  was  moved  from  the  islands  of  Kchrwieder  and  Wandrahm, 
and  upon  these  islands  and  certain  adjacent  territory,  free  accommo- 
dation was  provided  for  the  handling  of  the  largest  ships  afloat,  as 
well  as  their  cargoes,  while,  at  the  same  time,  equal  facilities  had  to  be 
provided  for  the  handling  of  merchandise  in  the  region  subject  to 
ordinary  tariff  taxes.  The  original  facilities  of  the  free  port  were  out- 
grown rapidly  and,  at  the  present  time,  the  port,  as  a  whole,  is  under- 
going very  extensive  and  costly  improvements. 

As  the  State  of  Hamburg  is  one  of  the  smallest  in  the  German 
Empire,  the  government  is  doing  everything  possible  to  recover  every 
inch  of  waste  and  marsh  land,  and  to  acquire,  by  purchase  or  other- 
wise, all  unimproved  lands.  The  result  of  this  policy,  which  is  one  of 
long  standing,  is  that  the  residential  portion  of  the  city  seems  like  one 
immense  park.  Where  public  holdings  have  not  been  converted  into 
gardens,  promenades  and  the  like,  and  where  the  land  is  unlikely  ever 
to  be  needed  for  handling  the  coinmerce  of  the  city,  lots  have  been 
laid  out  and  sold  at  auction  for  the  erection  of  dwelling  houses.    The 

68 


character  of  the  dwelling  houses  to  be  erected  is  controlled,  to  some 
extent,  by  the  government,  the  bviyers  being  required  to  build  on  a 
uniform  line,  with  an  allowance  for  a  small  front  garden,  and  being 
forbidden  to  erect  apartment  houses  except  in  certain  districts. 

The  provisions  for  air  and  light  in  the  modern  part  of  the  city  are 
excellent,  and  in  these  portions  the  streets  are  wide  and  are  admirably 
maintained.  Hamburg  is  undoubtedly  a  model  of  careful  organization, 
for  which  it  is  indebted  to  an  enlightened  government  composed  of  its 
ablest  citizens,  who  consecrate  their  entire  lives  to  their  special  tasks, 
and  who  covet  no  higher  honor  than  the  approval  of  their  fellow 
citizens. 

Mr.  Skinner  also  supplied  the  City  of  Houston  with  a  long,  detailed 
analysis  of  "Taxation  in  Germany."  This  report  has  been  filed  for 
reference  in  the  Houston  Public  Library,  where  it  can  be  consulted  by 
students  of  the  subject. 


69 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Official  Statistics  of  Hamburg. 

Hamburg,  Germany. — Before  taking  np  the  tliird  section  of  my 
report  on  Hamburg,  the  great  German  seaport  which  is  what  I  am 
convinced  Houston-Galveston  will  in  due  time  become,  let  me  set 
down  one  or  two  general  observations  on  city  government  which  sug- 
gest themselves  at  this  point : 

1.  The  human  race  has  not  yet  learned  to  live  as  sanely  and  health- 
fully in  cities  as  it  has  for  thousands  of  years  done  in  the  coimtry 
places,  because  the  city  as  we  know  it  is  relatively  a  very  recent 
development  of  human  society. 

2.  Our  cities,  and  especially  our  American  cities,  are  too  often 
wanting  in  publicly  owned  and  operated  services  ministering  to  the 
general  health  and  welfare,  and  too  seldom  possess  adequate  equipment 
of  permanent  imderground  utilities,  solely  because  we,  moving  lately 
into  the  cities  from  the  country  places,  where  life  was  and  is  lived 
on  simpler  terms,  have  brought  with  us  standards  of  economy  in  social 
expenditure  which  are  not  high  enough  to  meet  the  demands  of  city 
life.  In  a  word,  we  have  not  been  willing  to  pay  for  first-class  service, 
so  naturally  we  have  not  had  first-class  service,  in  our  cities. 

3.  A  high  city  tax  rate  is  an  unavoidable  incident  of  any  plan  of 
city  construction  and  administration  under  which  city  dwellers  shall 
receive  first  class  public  service.  A  high  rate  means  a  high  standard 
of  civilization  in  cities.  A  low  rate  means  a  low  standard.  Here  in 
Germany,  as  in  America,  cities  which  are  competing  for  new  industrial 
enterprises  do  to  some  extent  offer  as  an  inducement  the  fact  of  a 
comparatively  low  tax  rate;  but  they  do  not  give  it  anything  like  the 
emphasis  which  it  is  commonly  given  on  our  own  side  of  the  ocean. 
Indeed,  their  chief  claim  to  attract  new  factories  and  new  selling  enter- 
prises which  will  employ  considerable  numbers  of  people  is  the  com- 
ploieness  and  excellence  of  their  streets  and  their  public  services,  in- 
cluding water,  schools,  sewers,  parks  and  playgrounds,  amusement 
places,  trans[)ortation,  and,  often  above  everything  else,  their  ability 
to  provide  comfortable,  sanitary  housing  and  good  food  at  low  prices 
for  tlie  work  people  who  are  to  be  employed  in  the  new  enterprises. 

In  a  word,  the  German  city  builders  of  the  past  thirty  years  have 
been  first  to  recognize  that  not  cheap  living,  on  a  low  scale,  but  com- 
forfahlf  living,  on  the  highest  attainable  scale,  wouh]  most  certainly 
attract  now  population  and  capital.     They  have  not  been  afraid  to 

71 


play  the  game  the  way  they  figured  it  out.  And  they  have  made  it 
win.  Citizens  of  German  cities  often  complain  that  tliey  are  very 
heavily  taxed,  but  they  always  add :  "We  get  value  for  our  money." 
And  they  do. 

Xow  let  us  have  a  look  into  the  fiscal  affairs  and  the  methods  and 
motives  of  the  government  of  Hamburg,  as  set  forth  in  a  series  of 
replies  prepared  by  Consul  Skinner  in  answer  to  a  group  of  specific 
inquiries  which,  through  him,  I  addressed  to  the  Hamburg  city  gov- 
ernment. The  replies,  which  indicate  the  line  of  my  inquiry,  are  as 
follows : 

In  reply  to  Frmik  Putnam,  Esq.,  Special  Com'missmier  of  the  City 
of  Houston,  Texas,  now  at  Hanover,  Germany. — Information  Relat- 
ing to  the  Free  and  Hanseutic  City  of  Hamburg,  Germany: 

1.  The  population  of  the  State  of  Hamburg  on  October  1,  1911, 
was  1,038,931;  the  population  of  the  city,  953,179.  (From  Official 
Anzeiger,  252.) 

2.  The  total  income  of  the  State  of  Hamburg  in  1911  amounted  to 
144,987,226  marks;  in  1912,  to  160,167,280  marks.  Expenditures  in 
1911  amounted  to  161,819,668  marks;  in  1912,  172,535,711  marks. 

3.  The  income  of  the  State  of  Hamburg  under  the  head  of  taxes 
for  the  year  1908  was  as  follows : 

Eeal  estate  tax 18,558,857.46  marks 

Income  tax   39,206,484.03  marks 

Stamp  revenue   2,986,062.40  marks 

Eegistration  dues 560,701.06  marks 

Tonnage  dues   3,273,161.67  marks 

Inheritance  tax    4,548,209.95  marks 

Tax  on  sales  of  property 4,268,361.33  marks 

Amusement  tax 79,386.98  marks 

Dog  tax 311,722.14  marks 

Contributions  for  fire  department 919,455.14  marks 

Share  of  customs  revenues 6,805,163.76  marks 

Share  of  federal  receipts  from  distillers' 

tax  and  imperial  revenue  law 2,942,819.48  marks 

In  addition  to  these  ordinary  sources  of  income,  the  state  obtains 
large  revenues  from  what  is  called  the  state  domain.  The  anticipated 
income  from  this  source,  according  to  the  budget  for  1913,  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

Groimd  rents  894,700  marks 

Building  rents 4,080,000  marks 

Pastures   179,900  marks 

Woods,  hunting  and  fishing  riglits 24,900  marks 

Abattoirs    ^ 1,839,000  marks 

Petroleum  harbor   163,100  marks 

Lighting  14,687,000  marks 

Water   ? 5,603,500  marks 

72 


Customs    313,600  marks 

Eailway  shares 54,500  marks 

Eailways     1,054,400  marks 

Street  railways    1,443,000  marks 

Quays    '^. 0,-^--i3,400  marks 

Theatre  bonds    3,400  marks 

Pawnshops    335,000  marks 

Lottery   3,500,000  marks 

Wood  harbor  rents 38,300  marks 

Free  port  warehouses 974,500  marks 

4.  After  the  payments  into  the  interest  and  sinking  funds  accounts, 
and  special  expenditures  for  harbor  construction,  etc.,  a  considerable 
number  of  the  more  important  expenditures  of  the  city,  according  to 
the  budget  for  1913,  will  be  as  follows : 

Police  department    13,436,416.80  marks 

Building  police  department 559,341.50  marks 

Fire  department 3,373,736.00  marks 

Prison  in  Fuhlsbuettel 1,646,033.83  marks 

Detention  prison 377,995.43  marks 

Medical  college 1,673,736.15  marks 

Hospital,  St.  George   3,564,313.67  marks 

Hospital,  Eppendorf    3,848,917.73  marks 

Hospital,  Barmbeck    404,590.00  marks 

Hospital,  Friedrichsberg    1,771,839.00  marks 

Hospital,  Langenhorn    3,179,636.00  marks 

Poor  support 5,531,994.00  marks 

Workhouse 1,707,111.40  marks 

Superior  court   1,779,583.97  marks 

Local  court  3,007,995.80  marks 

Guardians'  court    177,191.50  marks 

Attachment  court 1,030,050.30  marks 

5.  At  the  end  of  1911,  Hamburg  bond  issues  were  outstanding  to 
the  amount  of  769,451,838.39  marks,  in  addition  to  which  there  was 
an  old  debt,  not  redeemable,  amounting  to  300,810.50  marks. 

6.  Yes,  bonds  are  issued  when  public  works  of  various  kinds  are 
proposed,  in  order  to  secure  funds  therefor. 

7.  Contracts  are  entered  into  after  public  advertising  for  bids  in 
the  State  Gazette.  I'his  relates  to  public  works  as  well  as  to  supplies 
of  almost  every  des(rij)tion.  The  execution  of  contracts  is  supervised 
by  the  competent  department  of  the  government. 

8.  The  city  operates  water  and  gas  works  for  its  own  account. 
The  street  railways  and  elevated  and  underground  railways  are  oper- 
ated by  corporations  under  concessions,  the  city  deriving  a  substantial 
income  from  these  enterprises. 

9.  The  port  is  the  greatest  revenue-])n)ducing  pn)|)erly  i)elonging 
to  the  State  of  Haml)urg;  however,  the  general  interests  of  the  state 
are  considered  rather  than  the  possibility  of  taxing  commerce  for  the 

73 


benefit  of  the  resident  population.  Not  only  is  the  income  of  the  port 
necessary  for  its  maintenance,  but  the  state  expends  enormous  amounts 
for  its  improvement  and  extension.  The  jealous  care  with  which  the 
harbor  and  its  surrounding  works  is  administered  is  one  of  the  promi- 
nent causes  of  Hamburg's  development. 

In  connection  with  the  port  there  exist  warehouse  facilities  enor- 
mous in  extent  which  are  operated  by  a  private  corporation  in  which 
the  state  holds  stock.  By  a  rather  complicated  method  of  accounting 
a  portion  of  the  annual  revenue  from  this  warehouse  stock  is  set  aside 
for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  additional  stock  in  the  company  for  the 
state,  so  that  in  time  the  state  will  become  the  whole  owner  of  the 
plant. 

The  state  is  the  owner  of  real  property  which  changes  hands  fre- 
quently. As  the  area  of  Hamburg  is  limited,  the  state  acquires  land  in 
fee  and  disposes  of  it  at  auction  from  time  to  time  under  such  condi- 
tions that  purchases  for  speculative  purposes  are  impossible.  Quite 
lately  the  state  condemned  certain  congested  districts,  razed  all  struc- 
tures existing  thereon,  cut  a  broad  thoroughfare  through  the  property, 
which  bears  the  name  of  Moenckebergstrasse,  and  is  now  selling  the 
lots  on  each  side  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  operation.  The  property  cost 
38,289,355  marks  and  up  to  1911  the  sales  of  street-abutting  land  had 
amounted  to  about  six  million  marks.  The  expenses  of  carrying  on  this 
operation  were  covered  by  a  special  loan.  In  this  connection  I  may 
remark  that  most  European  cities  refuse  to  give  their  streets  names'  or 
numbers  without  character,  preferring  to  name  them  after  celebrated 
national  or  local  personages.  It  is  considered  that  even  the  largest 
cities  are  not  so  complicated  but  that  intelligent  persons  can  find  their 
way  about,  without  reducing  public  nomenclature  to  a  series  of  figures. 

The  gas  works  belong  to  the  city  and  produced  a  revenue  of  12,- 
975,350  marks  in  1912,  against  a  cost  of  operation  of  8,178,870.50 
marks. 

10.  The  port  warehouses,  as  already  stated,  are  becoming  the  prop- 
erty of  the  public.  The  gas  works  were  taken  over  from  a  private  cor- 
poration in  1891. 

11.  The  gas  works  yield  the  state  a  fair  amount  of  revenue  over  the 
cost  of  maintenance  and  operation.     For  particulars,  see  No.  9. 

12.  This  question  has  already  been  answered  in  part.  The  electric 
light  company  is  a  private  corporation,  and  in  the  fiscal  year  1909-10 
paid  the  state  2,122,006.60  marks  in  taxes  and  dues  of  every  sort,  and 
in  the  year  1910-11,  2,323,456.25  marks. 

The  street  railway  companies  in  1909-10  paid  the  state  1,762,383.53 
marks  in  taxes  and  concession  dues.  From  1866  to  1910  stockholders 
of  the  street  railway  company  received  33,397,965.75  marks,  and  the 
city  23,001,703.31  marks. 

The  underground  and  elevated  railroad  has  only  been  in  operation  a 
few  months,  and  no  results  can  be  stated. 

74 


13.  Fares  on  the  street  railway  amount  to  10,  15  and  20  pfennigs, 
according  to  distance.  The  cost  of  gas  in  Hamburg  is  14  pfennigs  per 
cubic  meter.  Electricity  for  illuminating  purposes  is  sold  at  the  rate 
of  6  pfennigs  per  kilowatt  hour,  and  at  the  rate  of  20  pfennigs  per 
100  kilowatt  hours  for  power  purposes. 

14.  The  salaries  paid  to  public  officers  in  Hamburg  may  be  judged 
from  the  following  partial  list : 

Building  police  director 14,000  marks 

Building  inspectors   10,000  marks 

Assistants    5,000  marks 

Technicians 3,500  marks 

Chief  of  bureau 5,300  marks 

Registrar    4,300  marks 

Messengers    2,150  marks 

In  the  administration  of  tlie  port,  the  chief  councillor  receives 
$2,856  per  annum;  the  less  conspicuous  oihcers  are  paid  $2,380,  $1,309, 
$1,094,  $856,  $642,  $452,  the  lowest  salary  being  that  of  office  mes- 
sengers. These  port  salaries  are  subject  to  three,  four  and  five  in- 
creases every  three  years,  so  that  a  chief  councillor  who  starts  in  at 
$2,856  may  terminate  his  career  at  a  salary  of  $3,908,  and  upon  re- 
tirement from  active  duty  receives  a  pension  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

15.  The  income  tax  of  Hamburg  varies  according  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  state.  There  is  a  unit  tax,  the  imit  increasing  according 
to  the  income  reported,  and  this  unit  rate  is  multiplied  a  sufficient 
number  of  times  to  produce  the  desired  amount  of  revenue.  The 
average  number  of  units  collected  has  been  seven.  This  question  of 
taxation  is  complicated,  and  for  details  you  are  referred  to  the  report 
annexed  hereto,  entitled  "Taxation  in  Germany."  This  report,  written 
some  years  ago,  is  substantially  correct  today,  except  that  the  tax  on  the 
increase  in  the  value  of  real  property,  sometimes  called  the  tax  on  the 
unearned  increment,  and  which  was  formerly  merely  a  ITainlnirg  state 
tax,  is  now  an  imperial  tax.  This  tax  puts  into  effect  the  Henry 
George  theory  of  land  taxation. 

16.  Taxes  in  Hamburg  are  payable  without  excejition.  'j'be  rate  of 
the  income  tax  increases  as  the  income  of  the  individual  becomes 
greater. 

17.  Hamburg  is  one  of  tbe  free  states  of  the  German  Empire.  Its 
government  is  imlike  any  other  in  this  country,  and  has  come  down 
from  the  Middle  Ages  changed  only  to  meet  modern  necessities.  The 
commission  plan  of  administration  has  been  in  operation  in  Hamburg 
during  many  centuries.  The  chief  executive  l)ody  is  the  senate,  of 
eighteen  members,  elected  for  life  and  com])osed  of  men  of  high  per- 
sonal qualifications.  This  commission  of  eighteen  proposes  laws  to 
the  l)urgerschaft,  which  is  the  popular  elective  chamber.  The  various' 
senators  sit  as  members  of  deputations  which  control  the  different 
l)ranche8  of  the  government.  The  term  "oberbuergcrmeister''  is  not 
used  in  Hamburg  at  all.     In  this  state  each  member  of  the  senate  is 

75 


the  equal  of  every  other  in  rank  and  authority.  The  senate  elects  a 
president  who  serves,  usually,  not  more  than  two  years,  and  who  is 
called  the  burgomaster.  There  is  also  a  second  burgomaster,  who 
usually  becomes  burgomaster.  The  burgomaster,  in  addition  to  being 
president  of  the  senate,  represents  the  state  on  ceremonial  occasions, 
and  as  a  senator  he  continues  to  carry  on  the  work  intrusted  to  him 
before  he  was  chosen  burgomaster. 

The  Hamburg  system  of  government  is  complicated.  It  works  well 
here  because  it  is  hallowed  by  centuries  of  use,  and  because  members 
of  the  government  are  superior  men.  It  works  well,  also,  because  the 
city  is  the  state  and  the  state  is  the  city.  That  being  the  case,  there 
are  no  delays  or  differences  of  opinion  between  the  mimicipal  govern- 
ment and  the  national  government,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  in  the 
United  States.  In  Hamburg,  when  the  senate  and  the  burgerschaft 
have  spoken,  their  decision  is  law,  and  requires  no  higher  confirma- 
tion. Members  of  the  Hamburg  government  must  be  citizens  of  Ham- 
burg. This  does  not  apply  to  specialists  who  are  employed  in  the 
various  departments.  This  reply  to  question  No.  17  is  obviously  not 
based  upon  any  otticial  report  or  expression. 

18.  All  the  higher  officers  of  the  State  of  Hamburg  are  university 
graduates,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  building  department  and  the  like, 
must  be  graduates  of  technical  high  schools.  It  would  be  inconceiv- 
able in  Hamburg  that  a  public  officer  should  not  possess  either  the  gen- 
eral culture  or  the  special  training  for  his  particular  post.  No  one 
would  think  for  a  moment  of  putting  an  untried  man  in  a  responsible 
position  to  learn  the  actual  business  of  his  office  at  the  expense  of  the 
taxpayer.  On  the  other  hand,  any  man  who  has  entered  the  service  of 
the  state  is  assured  of  permanent  employment,  occasional  increase  in 
compensation  while  performing  the  same  work,  or  promotion  in  rank 
according  to  merit,  and,  eventually,  retirement  with  a  pension  for  life. 

Robert  P.  Skinner,  Consul  General. 

Hamburg,  Germany,  October  28,  1912. 

Further  statistical  information  concerning  the  city-state  of  Ham- 
burg is  given  in  the  following  reply  by  the  government,  through  its 
statistician,  to  the  inquiries  which  I  addressed  to  the  president  of  the 
Hamburg  senate. 

Free  and  Hanseatic  City  of  Hamburg, 
board  of  statistics. 
No.  of  Journal:  3171 

Hamburg,  October  31,  1912. 
Reply  to  letter  dated  October  4th. 
To  Mr.  Putnam,  Special   Commissioner  of  the   City  of  Houston, 
Texas,  U.  S.  A.,  United  States  Consulate,  Hanover. 

I  beg  to  answer  the  questions  put  by  you  as  follows : 

1.  On  November  1,  1911,  Hamburg's  population  (city)  was  953,- 
079  inhabitants;  on  November  1,  1911,  Hamburg's  population  (state) 
was  1,038,669  inhabitants. 

76 


2.  The  City  of  Hamburg  has  uo  special  administration;  all  the 
municipal  affairs  of  the  city  are  managed  by  the  authorities  of  the 
State  of  Hamburg.  The  city,  however,  forms  the  largest  part  of  the 
state.  The  state  budget  of  1910  shows  the  income  (apart  from  loans) 
to  be  155,436,000  marks.    This  according  to  the  state's  account  given. 

3.  This  income  is  composed  of: 

Rentals,  interest,  etc.,  of  state  property..   34,616,000  marks 

Taxes  and  royalties .  .   98,648,000  marks 

Fees  and  other  revenues  of  the  authorities  23,172,000  marks 

Total    155,436,000  marks 

4.  According  to  the  balance-account,  expenditures  of  the  state  were 
as  follows  for  the  calendar  year  1910 :  153,217',000  marks,  so  that  there 
was  a  surplus  of  revenues  of  2,219,000  marks.  In  detail  the  state  ex- 
pended, for: 

Overground  workings   22,694,000  marks 

Engineering — River  and  port  workings.  . .  7,569,000  marks 

Interest  for  state's  debts 26,663,000  marks 

Amortisation    5,981,000  marks 

5.  In  1910  (beginning  of  1911)  the  state's  debts  amounted  to 
715,761,000  marks. 

6.  The  state  issues  bonds  which  bear  interest,  but  the  expenses  for 
public  buildings,  etc.,  are  paid,  in  part,  from  the  yearly  revenues. 

The  state's  bonds  are  assured  by  the  state's  property,  which  may  be 
appraised,  approximately,  by  the  financial  department  and  private 
financiers.    The  property  is  larger  than  the  debts  are. 

7.  Works  and  furnitures  surpassing  360  marks  in  value  must  be 
publicly  written  out  for  contract  unless  the  senate  (the  chief  mimicipal 
authority)  decrees  dispensation  therefrom.  Whosoever  gets  the  con- 
tract must  either  bring  two  good  citizens  who  guarantee  the  furniture 
or  work  according  to  contract,  or  he  must  deposit,  in  ready  cash,  a  sum, 
usually  10  per  cent  of  the  amount  in  question.  The  sum  is  deposited 
with  the  financial  deputation. 

8  and  9.  The  street  railways  (Street  Railway  Company  in  Ham- 
burg and  Central  Railway  Company  of  Ilaniburg-Altona),  and  the 
running  tliereof,  are  operated  by  j)rivate  companies  wliich  have  to  pay 
yearly  taxes  and  other  obligations.  Electricity  is  furnished  by  a  private 
company;  tliis  also  is  done  against  a  yearly  tax.  Further,  a  private 
company  operates  electric  fast  trains  (elevated  and  underground  rail- 
way) and  is  taxed  therefor  yearly.  On  the  other  hand,  the  gas  works 
(with  a  surplus)  and  the  water  works  (with  a  surplus)  are  o])erated  ])y 
the  city,  rectius  the  state.  As  for  the  railway  lines,  the  main  line  is 
owned  and  ofx-ratcd  by  Prussia;  the  city  and  suburb  lines  are  owned 
by  llaml)urg  and  operated  by  Prussia;  the  same  with  the  lines  on  the 

77 


quay.  Public  works  and  institutions  are  further:  The  Abattoir  Ad- 
ministration (\nth  a  small  surplus),  the  Quay  and  Port  Administra- 
tion (operated  by  the  state),  the  mint,  the  foundries  laboratory,  and 
the  gauging  offices,  alternately  with  a  surplus  or  an  allowance. 

10.  None  of  the  works  owned  and  operated  by  the  state  at  the  time 
being  has  been  owned  formerly  by  private  persons  or  companies.  The 
gas  works  have  been  leased  to  a  private  person,  but  were  taken  over  by 
the  state  in  1891. 

11.  The  yearly  gross  receipts  of  public  institutions,  owned  and 
operated  by  the  state,  were,  in  1910,  as  given  below: 

Gas  works'    17,124,000  marks 

Water  works    .5,009,000  marks 

Abattoir    1,548,000  marks 

Quay  buildings,  including  port  rentals.  .  .  6,334,000  marks 
Mint,  including  the  stock  capital  for  coins 

and  medals    2,523,000  marks 

Foundries  laboratory    82,000  marks 

Gauging  offices    95,000  marks 

Lombard   (deposit  business) 203,000  marks 

Former  customs  bureau  store 321,000  marks 

Should  there  be  a  surplus,  it  goes  to  the  state's  funds;  as  a  rule, 
prices  are  not  lowered. 

12.  As  for  public  works  owned  and  operated  by  private  companies, 
the  State  of  Hamburg  received  in  1910 : 

(a)  From  the  street  railway  companies,  according  to  the  contracts 
made,  1,330,000  marks.  Of  this  amount  the  Street  Eailway  Company 
in  Hamburg  had  to  pay  875,000  marks  taxes.  The  share  of  the  state 
of  the  dividend  of  the  above-mentioned  company  was  336,000  marks. 
The  Hamburg-Altona  Central  Eailway  Company  had  to  pay  119,000 
marks  taxes. 

(b)  From  the  electric  works,  1,973,000  marks. 
The  electric  fast  trains  line  was  opened  but  this'  year. 

13.  On  the  lines  of  the  Street  Eailway  Company  in  Hamburg, 
passengers  pay  10,  15  and  20  pfennigs  (2  to  4  cents),  according  to 
distance;  on  the  lines  of  the  Hamburg-Altona  Central  Eailway  Com- 
pany, 10  pfennigs  (2  cents)  for  each  ride  is  paid,  without  taking  into 
consideration  the  distance. 

The  price  of  gas  is  14  pfennigs'  per  cul)ic  meter  and  is  the  same  for 
lighting,  cooking  and  heating  purposes,  as  well  as  for  motors. 

The  electric  works  charge  for  light  60  pfennigs  per  kilowatt  hour; 
for  power,  20  pfennigs. 

14.  Public  buildings  are  designed,  as  a  rule,  by  state's  officials  and 
executed,  nearly  without  exception,  by  private  enterprises.  (See  an- 
swer to  question  7.)     Wages  paid  to  workmen  occupied  with  public 

78 


building  work  are  the  same  as  those  of  workmen  occupied  with  private 
buildings.  The  majority  of  Hamburg  workmen  are  paid  by  the  hour. 
Wages  paid  for  the  hour  are,  just  now : 

For  masons  and  carpenters,  85  pfennigs  per  hour  for  a  working  day 
of  nine  hours;  that  is,  7.65  marks  per  day. 

For  stone  masons,  90  pfennigs  per  hour  for  a  working  day  of  eight 
and  one-half  hours. 

15.  Xo  income  tax  is  raised  from  incomes  under  900  marks.  Every 
fiscal  year  the  senate  and  the  burgerschaft  decide  how  many  tax  units 
are  to  be  raised.  In  1910,  seven  and  one-half  units  were  raised — the 
same  in  1911  and  1912.    The  tax  unit  would  be : 

Yearly  Income —  Tax  Unit. 

From  900  M.  to  1,000  M 1.00  M. 

From  over    1,000  M.  to    2,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 0.20  M.  more 

From  over    2,000  M.  to    3,000  M.,  for  each  himdred 0.40  M.  more 

From  over    3,000  M.  to    4,000  M.,  for  each  hundred.  . .  .0.55  M.  more 

From  over    4,000  M.  to    5,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 0.65  M.  more 

From  over    5,000  M.  to    6,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 0.80  M.  more 

From  over    6,000  M.  to    7,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 0.95  M.  more 

From  over    7,000  M.  to    8,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 1.00  M.  more 

From  over    8,000  M.  to  10,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 1.05  M.  more 

From  over  10,000  M.  to  15,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 1.10  M.  more 

From  over  15,000  M.  to  20,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 1.15  M.  more 

From  over  20,000  M.  to  30,000  M.,  for  each  hundred 1.20  M.  more 

So  the  unit  is : 

With  an  income  of    1,000  M 1       M. 

With  an  income  of    2,000  M 3       M. 

With  an  income  of    3,000  M 7       M. 

With  an  income  of    4,000  M 12.50  M.,  etc. 

until  with  an  income  of  30,000  M.,  it  amounts  to 300  M.=l%. 

From  this  point  it  is  raised,  in  another  20  units,  in  proportion  of  .01%, 
up  to  1.20%,  viz:  In  10  units  of  2,000  M.  each  up  to  1.10%  with  an 
income  of  50,000  M. ;  in  5  units  of  10,000  M.  each  up  to  1.15%  with 
an  income  of  100,000  M.;  in  5  units  of  20,000  M.  each  up  to  1.20% 
with  an  income  of  200,000  marks. 

A  portion  of  a  hundred  is  counted  for  a  full  liundred. 

If  the  family  of  a  taxpayer  consists  of,  at  the  least,  four  persons,  and 
the  whole  income  of  the  taxpayer  docs  not  exceed  5,000  M.,  he  has  tlie 
right  to  demand  his  tax  lowered  by  one-quarter;  in  case  his  wliole 
income  does  not  exceed  2,000  M.,  by  one-half.  If  the  family  consists 
of  six  persons,  and  the  whole  income  of  the  taxpayer  does  not  exceed 
5,000  M.,  the  taxpayer  has  the  right  to  demand  the  tax  lowered  by  one- 
half;  in  ease  the  whole  income  does  not  exceed  2,000  M.,  by  three- 
quarters. 

The  income  tax  would  be,  for  a  familv  of  six  heads,  witli  an  iiu^ome 
of  1,000  M.,  and  on  the  base  of  7>4  units:  1.88=1.90  M.,  that  is'  to 
say  one-fourth  of  tlie  tax  unit  of  7.50  ]\r.=not  quite  2%.     A  family 

79 


with  an  income  of  1,000  M.  and  four  or  five  heads  would  have  to  pay 
3.75  M.,  that  is  to  say,  one-half  of  the  tax  unit  of  7.50  M.=.38%  of 
the  income.  The  unit  is  raised  up  to  9%  in  case  of  the  income  being 
200,000  M.  and  more.  So  it  is  clear  that  the  lower  incomes  are  very 
much  favored  in  comparison  with  the  higher  ones. 

16.  The  tax  units  refer  to  physical  and  Judicial  persons,  but  cor- 
porations and  institutions  founded  for  benevolent  purposes  are  free 
from  income  tax.  The  property  is  not  taxed  in  this  city;  the  tax  on 
landed  property  and  buildings  we  raise  is  a  so-called  "real"  tax. 

17.  See  answer  to  question  2.  All  municipal  alfairs  are  managed 
and  closed  by  the  state  government.  The  senate,  being  the  head  of 
the  administration,  chooses,  by  secret  vote,  a  first  and  a  second  biirger- 
meister  from  the  members  of  the  senate,  to  be  president  for  the  term 
of  one  year.  No  biirgermeister  is  allowed  to  rule  longer  than  two  years 
at  a  stretch,  but  he  may  be  re-elected  after  a  short  interval  out  of  office. 

The  two  biirgermeisters  ruling  just  now  were  elected  on  September 
13,  1912.  The  first  biirgermeister  ib'  in  a  position  comparable  to  that 
of  the  president  of  a  republic;  his  position  is  not  to  be  compared  to 
that  of  a  city's  mayor. 

18.  As  a  rule,  the  principle  is  that  municipal  works  and  institu- 
tions must  be  operated  by  experts  with  a  special  training  for  their  post. 
Public  buildings  are  supervised  by  officials  of  the  state  who  were  trained 
at  the  technical  high  schools.  According  as  they  are  wanted  in  the 
lower,  middle  or  higher  administrative  service,  officials  have  to  get 
their  training  at  the  schools  of  the  city  or  the  state  relatively,  or  at  a 
high  school.  Officials  wanting  a  position  in  the  high  administrative 
service  of  the  city  or  state  must  be  students  of  a  high  school  and  must 
have  passed  the  examination  prescripted. 

Dr.  Beukemann, 

Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics. 


80 


CHAPTER  XIL 
The  Land  Increment  Tax  in  Hamburg. 

Hamburg,  Germany. — In  the  eleventh  article  of  this  series,  United 
States  Consul  General  Skinner  of  this  city  was  quoted  as  saying  that 
the  application  of  the  principle  of  taxing  the  unearned  increment  on 
land  was  first  a  policy  of  the  City  of  Hamburg  but  has  since  become 
also  an  imperial  German  policy,  thus  putting  "into  effect  the  Henry 
George  theory  of  land  taxation."  The  precise  extent  to  which  this 
theory  is  applied  is  indicated  in  the  following  excerpt  from  an  official 
report  made  by  Mr.  Skinner  on  this  subject,  and  included  in  this  letter. 

Inasmuch  as  Houston  recently  attempted  forward  steps  along  this 
line,  creating  a  lively  issue  between  large  landholders  and  the  majority 
of  citizens  who  own  little  or  no  land,  it  seems  to  me  this  brief  recital 
of  Hamburg's  experiment  with  the  new  tax  theory  should  be  inter- 
esting to  our  people,  and  possibly  give  them  some  light  on  the  path. 
Here  it  is : 

Law  Prescribing  Payment  of  Taxes  on  the  Increase  in  Value  of  Real 
Property. — If,  in  the  State  of  Hamburg,  a  piece  of  property  is  sold  or 
transferred,  it  is  subject  to  the  payment  of  a  tax  if  the  proceeds  ex- 
ceed the  amount  realized  upon  its  next  preceding  sale,  or  the  value  of 
the  consideration  which  resulted  in  its  last  transfer.  The  tax  is 
payable  by  the  seller.  The  tax  is  not  payable  when  property  is  ac- 
quired by  inheritance  or  gift.  The  amount  to  be  assessed  for  taxation 
is  found  by  subtracting  cost  plus  expenses  incurred  for  construction, 
sale  and  transfer,  from  the  price  finally  realized. 

The  expenses  incurred  to  the  seller  in  the  way  of  improvements 
during  the  time  when  he  owned  the  property,  provided  such  improve- 
ments still  exist  at  the  time  of  sale  or  transfer,  may  be  deducted,  but 
under  no  circumstances  interest  on  the  cost  of  purchase. 

If  property  passes  into  the  hands  of  another,  otherwise  tlinn  l)y  sale, 
but  in  consideration  of  an  e(|uivak'nt,  and  the  amount  of  such  equiv- 
alent can  not  1)0  ascertained,  the  value  of  the  property  at  the  time  of 
transfer  is  ascertained  by  ap))raisement.  If  the  transfer  or  sale  only 
refers  to  a  relatively  STuall  share  of  a  house  or  lot,  the  tax  department 
may  exempt  the  seller  from  the  payment  of  this  tax,  but  the  ])roceeds 
of  the  sale  of  such  small  portion  must  be  added  to  the  proceeds  of  the 
Bale  of  the  remaining  portion  when  sold  or  transferred  later. 

81 


Over 

10  to 

Over 

20  to 

Over 

30  to 

Over 

40  to 

Over 

50  to 

Over 

60  to 

Over 

70  to 

Over 

80  to 

Over 

90  to 

The  tax  rates  are  as  follows : 

Amount  of  increase —  Tax. 

Up  to  2,000  M 1     7o  of  increase  in  value 

Over    2,000  M.  to    4,000  M 1^  %  of  increase  in  value 

Over    4,000  M.  to    6,000  M 2     %  of  increase  in  value 

Over    6,000  M.  to    8,000  M 2>^  %  of  increase  in  value 

Over    8,000  M.  to  10,000  M 3     %  of  increase  in  value 

Over  10,000  M.  to  20,000  M 3>4%  of  increase  in  value 

Over  20,000  M.  to  30,000  M 4     %  of  increase  in  value 

Over  30,000  M.  to  40,000  M 4i^%  of  increase  in  value 

Over  40,000  M 5     %  of  increase  in  value 

If  the  increase  in  the  value  since  the  last  transfer  of  the  property 
amounts  to  more  than  10  per  cent  of  the  value  at  the  time  of  the  next 
preceding  transfer,  the  following  tax  rate  is  added  to  the  foregoing: 

20% 10%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

30% 20%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

40% 30%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

50% 40%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

60%' 50%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

70% 60%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

80% 70%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

90% 80%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

90  to  100% 90%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

Over  100% 100%  of  the  above  tax  rates 

Only  three-quarters'  of  the  above  tax  is  charged  if  thirty  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  last  previous  sale  or  transfer.  However,  if  this  period 
(between  last  and  present  sale)  is  less  than  ten  years,  one-quarter  more 
is  charged. 

The  department  of  taxes  is  charged  with  the  fixing  and  collecting 
of  this  tax.  The  taxpayer  receives  a  bill,  which  is  payable  within  one 
month,  but  not  before  the  transfer  has  been  effected. 

Exempt  from  this  tax  are  Hamburg  charitable  funds,  associations 
and  institutes  for  benevolent  purposes,  or  of  general  public  utility.  In 
cases  of  doubt  the  senate  decides. 

The  party  by  whom  the  tax  is  payable  must  inform  the  department 
of  taxes  of  the  transaction,  with  details,  and  may  be  required  to  pro- 
duce documentary  evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  statements. 

An  appeal  against  the  assessment  must  be  made  within  a  month  after 
receipt  of  the  tax  bill,  it  being  the  duty  of  the  taxpayer  to  prove  the 
alleged  injustice  of  the  assessment,  and  to  answer,  verbally  or  in 
writing  (if  demanded),  the  questions  propounded  to  him.  The  depart- 
ment of  taxes  decides.  An  appeal  made  later  than  four  weeks  after 
the  receipt  of  the  bill  can  be  considered  if  proper  reasons  prevented  the 
taxpayer  from  doing  so  sooner. 

82 


Incorrect  statements,  or  failure  to  report  the  transaction,  intention- 
ally or  in  consequence  of  gross  negligence,  are  punishable  by  a  tme  not 
to  exceed  three  times  the  amount  of  the  tax. 

In  special  cases,  where  the  collection  of  the  tax  would  be  an  act  of 
extraordinary  hardship,  the  senate  may  reduce  or  waive  the  amount 
payable. 

This  law  went  into  effect  on  January  1,  1908,  it  affecting  all  sales 
or  assignments  of  real  property  where  the  transfer  took  place  subse- 
quent to  December  31,  1907 ;  and  it  will  be  applied  to  all  such  trans- 
actions imtil  December  31,  1911,  that  is  to  say,  for  a  period  of  four 
years.  The  act  is,  therefore,  an  experimental  one  and  must  be  amended 
or  re-enacted  prior  to  expiration  if  it  is  to  continue  to  remain  in  force 
after  that  date.  In  limiting  the  effectiveness  of  this  law  to  such  a 
short  period  it  was  the  intention  of  the  legislative  body  to  learn 
whether  it  would  produce  sufficient  revenue  without  working  a  hard- 
ship to  the  real  estate  owners  or  unfavorably  affecting  the  value  of 
property. 


83 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
LooKixG  Into  Houston's  Future. 

Bremen,  Germany. — I  have  just  been  reading,  in  the  Chronicle  of 
October  20,  which  was  forwarded  to  me  here  this  morning,  Mayor 
Rice's  public  statement  in  which  he  reviews  the  work  of  his  eight-year 
administration  of  the  commission  government  of  Houston.  In  that 
statement  the  mayor  says : 

"I  can  not  but  impress  upon  you  the  importance  of  your  waterway. 
Already  other  seaports  are  being  established  upon  the  Texas  coast  aside 
from  Galveston,  and  it  behooves  every  citizen  of  Houston  to  study  his 
own  city,  and  strive  for  one  of  the  greatest  inland  harbors  of  America. 
Our  people  must  be  watchful  and  see  that  our  waterway  is  constructed 
on  broad  and  safe  lines,  that  the  terminal  facilities,  wharves,  etc.,  shall 
be  o\^Tied  and  controlled  by  the  city.  It  is  the  greatest  asset  this  city 
possesses  and  it  grieves  me  to  see  not  only  the  outside  speculators,  but 
some  of  our  own  citizens,  retarding  the  progress  of  this  channel  by 
buying  land  and  speculating  along  its  banks.  Land  that  the  govern- 
ment needs  for  dredging,  to  make  a  permanent  waterway,  is  being  held 
at  a  prohibitive  price  by  some  of  our  citizens.  I  suggest  that  an  amend- 
ment to  our  charter  be  passed  by  the  next  legislature  giving  the  City 
of  Houston  the  right  to  condemn  any  land  needed,  and  also  police 
power  between  Harrisburg  and  Morgan's  Point." 

Xo  thoughtful  man  can  study  the  great  inland  seaports  of  Germany 
— and  they  are  all  inland,  most  of  them  much  farther  inland  than 
Houston — without  appreciating  the  sober  wisdom  of  Mayor  Rice's 
counsel  to  Houston  quoted  above. 

Germany's  world-beating  advance  in  material  wealth,  and  in  the 
development  of  great  modern  cities  and  harbors,  during  the  past  forty 
years,  was  made  possible  through  the  exercise,  by  the  cities,  of  just 
such  powers  as  those  which  Mayor  Rice  urges  shall  be  conferred  upon 
Houston  by  the  next  Texas  legislature.  Here  the  selfish  private  profit, 
derived  from  speculation  in  lands  which  were  essential  to  the  com- 
munity, has  been  made  imj)ossil)lo.  Benefits  arising  from  increases  in 
land  values,  due  to  demand  created  l)y  community  growth,  have  l)een 
absorbed  chiefly  by  the  city  governments  for  the  general  welfare. 
Hamburg  and  Bremen,  the  great  North  German  ports  nearest  the  sea, 
are  examples  illustrating  this  policy.  So  are  all  of  the  score  or 
more  busy  ]^)ort  cities  along  the  Rhine,  Weser  and  Elbe  rivers,  farther 
inland.  Each  has  l)cen  able,  wholly  or  in  large  part,  to  forestall,  for 
the  community,  tlie  private  speculator  in  land  values.  When  a  tract 
of  land  was  needed   for  harhor  iinprfjvement,  the  city  bought  it,  or 

85 


condemned  it  at  a  fair  valuation,  with  borrowed  capital.  The  city 
thereafter  worked  out  carefully  a  general  plan  of  improvements,  both 
public  and  private,  and  resold  parcels  of  the  land  for  factory  and 
warehouse  sites,  homes  and  otherwise,  thus  attracting  new  industries 
and  getting  back  the  original  investment  with  an  added  profit. 

My  observations  over  here  convince  me  the  City  of  Houston,  or  a 
Houston  harbor  board,  should  own  and  control,  for  all  time,  enough 
land  along  either  bank  of  the  ship  channel  to  enable  it  to  provide  for 
future  widening  of  the  channel,  and  to  supply  sites,  at  fair  prices, 
for  factories,  warehouses  and  other  betterments  which  private  capital 
must  establish  there  if  Houston's  ambition  is  to  be  realized. 

If  Houston  acts  on  her  opportunities,  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  the  channel  now  in  process  of  creation  must  be  widened  as  well 
as  deepened  hereafter.  The  150-foot  bottom  width  which  will  limit 
the  capacity  of  the  original  channel  will  not  long  meet  the  demands 
which  will  be  laid  upon  it.  Its  ultimate  bottom  width — pretty  cer- 
tainly within  twenty  years — will  be  500  to  1,000  feet,  and  its  depth 
will  he  sufficient  to  float  the  biggest  cargo  ships. 

There  will  be,  as  there  are  today  in  these  great  German  ports  simi- 
larly situated,  numerous  huge  basins  opening  off  the  channel,  and 
affording  harborage  for  the  commercial  fleets  which  will  come  up  to  the 
rail  terminals  at  Houston  to  deliver  the  traffic  between  the  American 
West  and  the  outer  world. 

The  Houston  harbor  authorities  will  be  spending  money  on  the 
Houston  ship  channel  a  hundred  years  hence;  that  was  fairly  clear  to 
me  when  we  were  hustling  for  votes  to  get  the  district  created.  It  is  a 
certainty  in  my  mind  now.  I  find  each  of  the  great  harbors  of  Europe 
is  controlled  by  a  separate  board  or  commission,  whose  membership 
includes  the  ablest  men  in  the  community.  The  Clyde  Trust,  con- 
trolling Glasgow  harborage  and  the  river  channel  down  to  the  sea,  is 
an  illustration. 

There  is  every  reason  why  the  Texas  legislature  should  be  glad  to 
grant  to  Houston  and  Harris  county  the  fullest  desired  power  to  create, 
along  the  channel  between  Galveston  and  Houston,  the  huge  harborage 
which  the  commerce  of  the  West  and  Southwest  demand  at  that  point. 
Because,  while  the  burden  of  cost  will  fall  upon  Houston  and  Harris 
count}'  and  the  Federal  government,  the  benefits  will  be  shared, 
throughout  all  the  future,  by  every  Texan  who  produces  a  pound  of 
any  product  for  export  or  who  consumes  any  product  brought  into 
Texas  by  water.  Houston  and  Harris  county  are  building  not  for 
themselves  alone  but  for  the  whole  state  and  the  whole  West. 

Mayor  Eice's  urgent  advice  that  the  wharfage  in  the  Houston  ship 
channel  should  be  owned  or  controlled  Ijy  a  public  body  representing 
the  people,  and  not  left  to  be  monopolized  by  combined  private  cap- 
ital, is  supported  by  the  experience  of  the  great  ports  of  Europe,  where 
the  wisdom  of  that  policy  has  been  everywhere  demonstrated.  This 
means  that  further  enormous  sums  of  money  must  be  invested  by 

86 


public  authority,  to  obtain  title  to  lands,  and  to  plan  and  in  part  to 
make  improvements  upon  such  lands.  It  seems  to  me  our  port  avithor- 
ity  should  vest,  as  it  does  over  here,  in  a  separate  body,  since  in  time  to 
come  the  local  investments  in  harborage  and  channel  will  be  almost  if 
not  quite  as  great  as  those  in  the  purely  municipal  services.  This  port 
authority  should  have  power  to  issue  bonds  as  needed — and  it  will  need 
a  very  wide  latitude  in  this  respect — without  embarrassing  the  city 
proper  in  its  borrowing  capacity  for  municipal  needs. 

The  time  has  passed  when  there  is  even  a  remote  possibility  of  the 
creation  of  another  seaport  upon  the  Texas  coast,  or  for  that  matter 
upon  the  American  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  which  can  hope  to  rival 
the  Houston-Galveston  district.  There  will  be  other  ports — for  ports 
like  cities  are  built  where  men  build  them — but  the  one  great  interna- 
tional seaport  on  the  gulf  will  be  where  it  is  today,  namely,  in  the 
Galveston-Houston  district.  All  of  the  available  water  frontage  with- 
ing  that  district  will  in  due  time  be  needed,  and  used.  Yoimg  men 
who  cast  their  first  votes  November  5,  1912,  will  live  to  see  the  Houston 
harbor  authorities  doing  what  the  port  authorities  of  Hamburg  have 
had  to  do,  and  that  is,  glean  with  a  fine-tooth  comb  for  every  available 
foot  of  water  frontage  that  can  be  made  available,  by  filling,  draining 
or  other  improvement,  for  industrial  sites  and  harborage. 

One  steamship  company  alone  runs  forty  lines,  with  a  total  of  453 
ships,  out  of  Bremen.  The  city-state  could  not  economically  make  the 
Weser  river  navigable,  at  Bremen,  for  the  huge  vessels  of  recent  times, 
so  it  bought  a  site  and  laid  out  a  subsidiary  city — Bremerhaven — 
farther  down  stream,  where  the  river  is  wider  and  deeper.  Here  the 
big  ships  of  the  Xord-Deutscher  Lloyd  line  dock  passengers  and  freight. 
Vessels  of  lighter  draught,  but  large  enough  to  trade  with  the  whole 
of  the  A;vade  world,  come  up  to  Bremen  and  discharge  cargoes  in  half  a 
dozen  basins  made,  owned  and  controlled  by  the  public  authority. 

The  ship  channel  is  indeed  Houston's  biggest  asset ;  it  is  also  Hous- 
ton's biggest  responsibility  and  Houston's  biggest  obligation.  Hous- 
ton's recent  growth  has  been  largely  built  upon  it  in  tmticipation ; 
Houston's  future  growth  rests  chiefly  upon  it.  Houston  should  employ 
first-cla.ss  harbor  engineers  on  her  own  account  and,  supplementing 
whatever  the  Federal  government  may  do,  to  study  the  harbor  devel- 
opment of  other  great  seaport  cities,  and  make  sure  their  best  ideas  are 
embodied  in  the  development  of  the  Houston  harbor  and  chajiuel. 


87 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Appreciation  of  Art  in  German  Cities. 

Bremen,  Germany. — This  town  is  of  especial  interest  to  me  for 
several  reasons.  First,  it  handles  a  hmidred  million  dollars'  worth 
of  cotton  every  year,  most  of  it  from  Texas,  through  the  Houston- 
Galveston  district.  Second,  it  has  a  city  hall  dating  from  1457,  in 
whose  basement  is  the  daddy  of  all  the  ratskellers.  Third,  it  has 
some  of  the  handsomest  public  monuments  in  Europe,  one  in  par- 
ticular which  I  should  certainly  steal  for  Houston  if  I  knew  of  any 
way  to  get  it  across.  I  allude  to  the  Teichmann  fountain,  which  is 
the  most  delightfully  imaginative  and  in  all  ways  alluring  of  the 
public  monuments  which  I  have  seen.  In  the  group  of  figures  we 
have  the  ancient  Norseman,  standing  with  poised  oar  in  his  bull's- 
hide  boat;  beneath  the  boat,  bearing  it  on  his  broad  back  and  draw- 
ing it  forward  with  mighty  hands,  the  sea  centaur;  at  the  left  side, 
clinging  to  the  gunwale  of  the  boat  and  looking  upward  with  siren 
entreaty,  the  mermaid,  seeking  to  draw  the  sailor  down  into  the 
deeps;  below,  in  the  water,  an  octopus  with  tentacles  twining  around 
the  limbs  of  the  centaur;  at  the  boat's  prow,  a  very  figure  of  flight, 
the  yoimg  God  Mercury,  guiding  the  sailor  toward  the  home  port. 
The  whole  composition  is  alive;  the  artist  caught  the  figures  in  the 
very  stress  of  action.  It  symbolizes  the  history  of  Bremen — a  sea- 
port's history;  and  it  expresses  the  artistic  genius  of  the  Teuton 
at  its  best.  For  half  an  hour  I  studied  it,  saying  to  myself:  "Good 
Lord,  if  we  only  had  the  equivalent  of  that  in  Houston !  If  we  only 
had  the  trained  talent  there  to  produce  such  work !  If  we  as  a 
people  only  cared  a  rap  for  it!  If  we  were  not  so  utterly  engrossed 
with  mere  getting  and  spending!  If — but  what's  the  use?  Maybe 
the  future  will  give  us  grace.  Meantime,  our  job  is  to  lay  fouuthi- 
tions  for  the  fundamental  decencies  of  city  life.  Aljove  all,  we 
must  get  good  public  highways.  And  before  we  lay  down  the  per- 
manent pavements  we  must  complete  the  underground  services,  so 
that  our  paving  shall  not  need  to  be  torn  up  and  badly  repaired 
every  six  months.  To  do  this  we  must  spend  money — more  money 
than  we  have  ever  contemplated  spending.  Tlie  cost  of  not  having 
good  pavements  is  larger  by  far  than  the  cost  of  building  them.  But 
we  don't  realize  the  cost  of  not  having  them,  because  wo  never  have 
had  them  ;  whereas  we  do  realize  the  cost  of  building  them.  Every 
foot  of  street  in  the  City  of  Houston  ought  to  be  ])aved,  and  in  the 
least  possible  time,  just  as  every  foot  of  street  in  tliese  cities  of 
modem  Germany  is  paved — and  most  of  llu;  work  done  dining  the 

89 


past  thirty  years.  When  Ave  get  our  streets  paved,  our  water  and 
sewers  connected  up  with  every  house,  our  parks  bought,  and  their 
development  on  artistic  lines  at  least  begun,  then  maybe  we'll  de- 
velop, or  attract  to  us,  the  kind  of  talent  that  produces  Teichmann 
fountains,  and  get  beautiful  works  of  art  with  which  to  refresh  our 

BOllls."' 

All  of  which  is  set  down  not  with  any  idea  that  it  will  interest  the 
old  fellows — the  men  of  my  own  generation — but  with  the  hope  that 
it  may  inspire  some  of  our  boys  or  girls  to  seek  careers  in  the  least 
occupied  of  all  fields  of  American  endeavor — the  field  of  creative 
art.  I  haven't  a  shadow  of  doubt  we  have  the  native  talent  in  Texas 
to  produce  works  of  art  as  fine  as  any  that  adorn  the  cities  of  Europe ; 
but  we  have  not,  as  Europe  has,  the  disposition  to  honor  the  artist, 
and  to  encourage  him. 

At  this  point  let  me  suggest  that  an  opportunity  is  open  to  our  local 
millionaires.  Houston  needs  an  art  gallery  and  museum — needs  it  as 
badly  as  she  needs  more  sewers  and  paving,  although  the  need  is  not 
recognized,  probably,  by  as  many  citizens  as  perceive  the  need  for  the 
foundation  laying.  I  find  that  in  most  of  these  German  cities,  with 
their  scores  of  noble  public  monuments,  the  public  administration  has 
received  aid,  in  procuring  such  ornaments  for  the  municipality,  from 
generous  individuals  and  societies.  These  men  delight  thus  to  honor 
the  city  in  which  they  dwell.  They  are  glad  to  associate  their  names 
honorably  with  fine,  costly  gifts  out  of  their  plenty  to  enrich  the  lives 
of  their  less  fortimate  neighbors.  This  is  especially  true  of  Bremen, 
my  favorite  among  the  German  cities.  In  this  city  is  a  savings  insti- 
tution (concerning  which  Mr.  Fee,  our  consul,  has  lately  sent  an  in- 
teresting report  to  the  American  state  department),  which  expends 
its  surplus  earnings,  above  5  per  cent,  in  aiding  the  city-state  to  erect 
needed  public  service  institutions,  such  as  the  big  public  bath  house, 
schools,  etc.  The  directors  of  this  huge  bank,  with  deposits  of  more 
than  forty-five  million  dollars,  receive  no  payment  for  their  services; 
the  business,  under  their  gratuitous  supervision,  is  conducted  by  sal- 
aried managers,  with  the  sole  aim  to  encourage  saving  by  the  working 
people  of  the  city,  and  to  provide  a  fund,  from  the  surplus  earnings, 
with  which  to  help  the  city  procure  benefits  for  the  people  which  it 
could  not  obtain  from  its  own  revenues. 

The  rule  of  "everyone  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost," 
which  has  made  America  what  it  is — the  wonder  of  the  world  and  the 
despair  of  its  soberest  thinkers — has  not  governed  here.  The  pace  is 
slower  than  in  America.  The  workers  work  longer  hours,  as  a  rule, 
but  less  hurriedly,  and  they  play  more,  more  innocently  than  in  our 
big  cities,  with  more  real  individual  freedom.  At  night  I  find  them 
by  thousands  gathered  in  the  restaurants  and  cafes — all  classes,  enjoy- 
ing social  companionship,  the  cup  that  cheers  but  rarely  intoxicates, 
and  excellent  music,  at  prices  which  they  can  afPord  to  pay  for  the 
privilege  of  thus  lightening  the  dull  routine  of  life.  They  are  happy 
people — as  happy  as  it  is  given  mortals  to  be  in  a  world  of  disappoint- 
ments and  uncertainties.     The  men  have  all  done  army  service — from 

90 


one  to  three  years — and  show  it  in  their  erect  bearing,  their  manly 
pride  of  demeanor,  their  evident  aft'ection  for  the  Fatherland.  I  have 
been  converted  to  the  belief  that  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  for  America 
to  require  all  our  physically  competent  young  men  to  serve  with  the 
flag  for  at  least  one  year.  Here  in  Germany  it  is  agreed  by  those  whose 
testimony  is  best  worth  taking  that  the  universal  military  training  has 
far  more  than  made  good  (by  prolonging  the  average  term  of  life  and 
by  stimulating  the  general  intelligence  along  sanitary  lines  especially), 
the  loss  of  productive  labor  incurred  through  the  withdrawal  of  the 
young  men  from  the  trades  and  professions  during  the  period  of  their 
army  service.  We  are  long  on  theories  in  America,  but  some  of  those 
theories  wilt  in  the  shining  presence  of  the  concrete  facts  of  the  ex- 
perience of  older  peoples. 

From  the  Teichmann  fountain,  meditating  as  above  set  forth,  I 
walked  over  to  the  ancient  Rathouse,  or  city  hall.  It  is  a  gem  of  fif- 
teenth century  architecture — the  older  portion.  There  is  a  new  por- 
tion, a  wing  added  in  recent  years  to  accommodate  public  offices.  In 
the  basement  of  the  old  Rathouse  is  the  ratskeller,  the  first  of  all  the 
ratskellers,  and  the  one  from  which  the  name  was  taken.  Entering 
the  ratskeller  do^Ti  a  stairway  at  the  side  of  the  front  main  entrance 
to  the  council  chamber  of  the  Rathouse,  one  finds  himself,  in  the 
morning,  almost  alone,  except  for  two  or  three  white-aproned  waiters, 
in  an  apartment  perhaps  eighty  feet  long  and  forty  feet  wide.  On  one 
side  is  a  row  of  huge  beer  tuns,  or  barrels ;  on  the  other  side  a  row  of 
tiny  rooms,  each  with  its  dining  table  and  a  cushioned  seat  for  four 
persons'  on  either  side  of  the  table.  On  the  walls  of  these  rooms  fa- 
mous Deutsch  and  Scandinavian  artists  have  painted  scenes  from 
Deutsch  m3'thology,  or  landscapes,  or  harbor  views  in  other  Xorth 
European  cities.  Fronting  me,  as  I  sat  down  in  one  of  these  little 
doorless  rooms,  was  a  perfectly  corking  marine  view,  of  Bergen  in 
Norway.  Watching  the  water  gushing  from  the  Teichmann  fountain 
during  the  bright  morning  sunshine  had  made  me  unexpectedly  thirsty, 
60  I  ordered  a  half-flask  of  Ingelheimer  and  sipped  it  meditatively, 
wondering  the  while  how  many  years  must  elapse  before  we  in  Houston 
shall  begin  to  manifest  any  appreciation  of  the  value  of  mere  beauty  as 
a  municipal  asset.  There  for  the  first  time  the  charm  of  the  old  things 
of  Europe  gripped  me,  and  I  began  making  mental  comparisons  be- 
tween the  real  value  of  the  old  and  the  modern  expressions  of  hunum 
intelligence.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  ours  is  the  brightest  little  gen- 
eration that  has  ever  inhabited  the  earth — and  yet,  and  yet  ? 


91 


-^I^- 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

Facts  axd  Figures  From  Hanover's  Government. 

Hanover,  Germany. — Here  in  the  ancient  capital  of  the  vanished 
Kingdom  of  Hanover,  now  a  typical  North  German  city,  ultra  modern, 
of  300,000  inhabitants,  I  have  made  my  headquarters  for  the  brief 
period  allotted  me  to  study  municipal  administration  in  Germany. 
From  Hanover  I  have  made  visits  to  other  German  cities,  and  through 
secretaries  have  conducted  a  deal  of  correspondence  with  the  officials 
of  these  cities. 

Ever}'where  and  from  everybody,  high  and  low,  the  visitor  from 
Texas  has  received  generous  kindness  and  cordial  co-operation  in  his 
efforts  to  learn  something,  out  of  the  experience  of  German  cities, 
which  might  be  of  use  to  his  own  city  and  to  other  cities  of  Texas. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  officials  of 
German  cities  are  frequently  called  upon  to  spend  time  and  energy 
preparing  replies  to  inquiries  of  this  character.  So  far  as  I  am  able 
to  learn,  Houston  is  the  first  American  city  which  has  at  its  ovm  ex- 
pense sent  a  special  commissioner  to  Germany  on  a  mission  of  this' 
kind,  but  there  have  been  no  end  of  such  investigations  made  or  at- 
tempted by  representatives  of  commercial  and  political  or  semi-political 
organizations  unofficial  in  character.  Several  American  cities  luive 
propounded  inquiries  by  mail  to  German  city  officials,  and  the  replies 
to  these  inquiries,  if  their  location  was  kno\\Ti,  and  their  contents  could 
be  made  available  for  arrangement  and  condensation,  would  doubtless 
afford  a  larger  total  of  such  information  than  any  one  investigator  has 
or  will  be  able  to  acquire. 

Houston's  in(|uiry  differs  from  all  the  others  in  this  respect:  that  it 
is  an  effort  not  only  to  acquire  facts,  but  through  personal  study  on  the 
ground  to  apply  those  facts,  in  so  far  as  may  be  possible,  to  our  home 
conditions.  Tbis,  more  than  the  mere  collection  of  facts,  will,  I  hope, 
prove  to  be  the  most  useful  result  of  my  tour  of  inquiry. 

Houston's  inquiry  is,  moreover,  the  first  whose  results  have  ever  been 
published  in  a  series  of  letters  prepared  to  reach  a  large  population 
weekly  during  the  progress  of  the  investigation.  All  other  investiga- 
tions made  over  hero,  by  cities  through  the  mails  or  by  non-oflicial 
organizations  through  men  in  the  field,  have  been  re))orted  ujion  either 
in  dry  documentary  form,  for  preservation  in  the  files  of  the  organiza- 
tions which  footed  the  bills,  or  in  books,  which  have  had  but  liniiled 
sale,  and  that  almost  solely  among  academic  students  of  the  sul)ject, 
and  have  thus  failed  to  reach  any  consideral)le  number  of  the  plain 
people,  who  must  finally  pass  judgment  upon  any  changes  which  may 
be  proposed  in  our  form  of  mimicipal  government. 

93 


It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  the  City  of  Houston  has  not  only  done 
a  new  thing  in  sending  its  own  commissioner  to  study  the  question  in 
the  field,  but  has  created  a  valuable  precedent  in  the  method  of  getting 
its  report  to  the  people. 

The  facts  that  Houston  had  officially  sent  her  own  investigator,  and 
that  Houston  was  publishing  its  findings  weekly  in  newspapers  reach- 
ing a  very  large  number  of  American  citizens,  was  undoubtedly  in- 
fluential in  inducing  the  officials  of  some  German  cities  to  give  especial 
attention  to  Houston's  request  for  co-operation  in  developing  the 
desired  information. 

The  old  world,  officially,  is  mighty  formal.  Ben  Franklin,  captured 
the  court  of  the  French  king  in  American  homespun — but  he  was  the 
only  man  that  ever  did  anything  of  the  kind,  and  his  fame  as  a  phil- 
osopher and  scientist,  to  say  nothing  of  his  extraordinary  personal 
charm,  was  worldwide  when  he  arrived  in  Europe.  Today  the  foreign 
emissary  to  Europe,  however  obscure  his  station  or  relatively  unim- 
portant his  mission,  must  go  the  gait  prescribed  by  official  custom, 
must  be  provided  with  credentials,  the  more  formal  the  better,  and 
must  in  short  be  prepared  to  play  the  good  old  American  game  of  bluff 
to  the  limit.  I  suspect,  in  fact,  the  Americans  learned  that  game  in 
old  Europe.  I  was  up  against  it  for  fair,  apparently,  at  the  start 
(having  no  title  of  any  kind  except  the  one  we  coined  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment  in  the  city  hall  the  day  the  city  commission  decided  to  send 
me  over  here),  and  my  friends  at  the  consulate  here  in  a  worried  way 
asked  me  if  I  wasn't  a  "doctor  professor,"  or  something.  When  I 
told  'em  I  wasn't  either  doctor  or  professor  or  colonel  or  judge  or  even 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  but  just  a  plain  untitled  hombre  from  the  gulf 
coast  prairie,  they  scratched  their  heads  and  did  some  deep  thinking. 
I  had  no  Deutsch  then,  and  was  unsuspicious,  but  when  the  consul  intro- 
duced me  to  the  stadt  syndicus  (city  secretary),  as  Herrn  Docteur  Put- 
nam von  Houston,  Texas,  U.  S.  A.,  I  knew  he  had  taken  matters  into 
his  own  hands  and  put  me  in  right,  as  he  saw  the  right.  And  I  noticed 
that  the  stadt  syndicus'  manner  thawed  perceptibly  when  he  caught 
that  "Herrn  Docteur"  stuff.  We  submitted  to  him  a  list  of  questions 
concerning  his  city  government,  and  he  said  he'd  take  the  matter  up 
with  his  magistrat  (council),  and  the  stadt  director  (mayor),  to  see 
whether  or  not  they  wished  to  give  me  answers  to  my  questions.  Then 
the  consul  and  the  "Herrn  Docteur"  bade  him  good  morning  and  went 
out  to  begin  making  a  first-hand  study  of  the  organization  of  life  in 
a  German  city. 

A  few  days  later  the  consul  received  from  the  city  government  the 
following : 

"We  beg  to  give  you  the  following  information  as  to  the  questions 
of  Mr.  Frank  Putnam  of  Houston,  Texas,  U.  S.  A. : 

"1.  All  services  produce  income.  Presupposing  two  sorts  (a)  such 
as  show  a  surplus  as  a  rule,  (b)  such  as  usually  require  a  grant  from 
the  town  treasury ;  to  the  first  group  belong  the  technical  industries,  to 
the  second  group  such  as  are  of  social  and  humanitarian  nature.  Of 
the  first  the  town  of  Hanover  possesses  two  chemists'  shops   (drug 

94 


stores)  ;  one  electrical  works,  various  houses  let  to  tenants,  and  real 
estate  premises  of  various  kinds;  a  market  with  cold  storage;  a  savings 
bank;  water  works,  partly  well  and  partly  river  water,  with  various 
branches;  fourteen  restaurants,  mostly  in  the  woods,  and  four  brick- 
yards. Of  undertakings  of  the  second  kind  the  town  of  Hanover  pos- 
sesses :  A  home  for  the  aged  and  infirm ;  one  labor  exchange,  one 
workhouse,  one  refuge  home  for  women,  one  information  bureau,  a 
home  for  consumptive  patients  where  medical  advice  is  given  free,  with 
treatment  when  patients  are  unable  to  pay  fo,r  it;  four  baking  estab- 
lishments; one  chemical  testing  laboratory;  one  disinfecting  estab- 
lishment; seven  cemeteries;  sewerage  works  (in  which  the  city's  sewage 
is  prepared  to  be  used  for  fertilizer)  ;  one  museum;  two  infirmaries; 
one  pa^vnbroker's  shop ;  one  public  reading  room ;  one  slaughter  house 
and  cattle  yard,  where  all  animals  slaughtered  for  human  food  to  be 
consumed  in  Hanover  are  required  to  be  handled,  with  inspection  before 
and  after  killing;  one  public  library;  the  town  woods,  and  one  orphan- 
age. 

"2.  Information  on  this  subject  can  not  be  given;  this  we  regret. 
(I  had  asked  when  and  how  municipal  services,  formerly  owned  pri- 
vately and  now  owned  publicly,  were  acquired  by  the  city. ) 

"3.  The  net  income  of  the  services:  In  the  year  1910-11  the  sur- 
plus obtained  from  the  actual  services  amounted  to  1,141,822  marks; 
of  this  222,136  was  from  rent  of  houses  and  restaurants. 

"4.  The  other  sources  of  municipal  income  are  chiefly  from  taxes, 
10,127,286  marks;  from  invested  capital,  181,273  marks;  money  paid 
by  the  gas  company,  the  tramway  company  and  Capital  Insurance 
Association,  etc.,  1,401,222  marks;  dues  and  fines,  256,798  marks.  A 
large  number  of  the  administrative  offices  have  their  income  at  their 
own  disposal ;  for  instance,  the  police  who  look  after  buildings  re- 
ceived fees,  185,006  marks;  the  board  of  works,  dues  and  grants, 
222,385  marks;  the  street  cleaning  department,  205,422  marks;  the 
sewerage  department,  dues  (rentals),  1,337,863  marks;  the  bathing 
establishments  receipts,  187,858  marks;  covered  market  dues,  205,422 
marks ;  infirmaries,  652,768  marks,  etc.,  and  not  the  least  item,  fees 
for  schooling,  1,853,521  marks.  The  total  income  derived  from  the 
various  administrative  branches,  inclusive  of  the  receipts  from  the 
above  mentioned  services,  amounted,  1910-11  to  20,388,093  marks, 
while  the  total  expenses  absorbed  20,343,548  marks  (about  $5,000,000). 

"5.  The  municipality  is  not,  of  course,  able  to  pay  any  abnormally 
great  expenses  from  the  current  revenues,  but  requires  for  such  pur- 
poses abnormal  sources  of  revenue,  which,  as  is  the  case  elsewhere,  are 
procured  by  means  of  loans  subject  to  interest.  Security  is  assured  by 
the  liability  of  the  community.  Contracts  are  never  granted  to  certain 
interested  groups,  but  are  as  a  rule  pul)lic  so  that  anyone  may  bid. 
Public  opinion  insures  the  contracts  l)eing  let  fairly;  contributory  is 
the  right  of  those  elected  by  their  fellow  citizens  to  assist  in  settling 
the  matter,  and  the  composition  of  the  commissions  which  have  the 
final  decision,  consisting  of  disinterested  members,  officials,  sworn  pro- 
fessionals and  experts.    It  may  certainly  hapjx'n  that  certain  measures 

95 


are  adopted  in  German  municipalities  which  insure  preponderate  ad- 
vantages to  some  interested  group  ( in  so.  far  as  this  group  may  possess 
a  preponderant  influence  in  the  administration  of  the  municipality), 
as  the  result  of  some  municipal  regulation,  or  the  privilege  of  voting. 
Such  occurrences,  however,  are  exceptional. 

"6.  The  privilege  of  voting  (for  members  of  the  magistrat — the 
city  coimcil)  is  enjoyed  in  every  German  municipality,  but  the  mode 
of  according  this  privilege  varies.  In  Hanover  it  is  regulated  by  the 
rules  laid  down  for  Hanoverian  municipalities:  The  distinguishing 
feature  is  that  the  privilege  is  not  enjoyed  by  all  the  inhabitants.  It 
is  a  privilege  which  is  acquired  in  part  by  payment  of  a  fee  [equiv- 
alent approximately  to  our  Texas  poll  tax  plus  payment  of  a  required 
amount  of  property  taxes],  while  it  may  also  be  partly  obtained  as  a 
right. 

"7.  The  leading  men  in  German  mimicipal  governments  have  been 
educated  at  German  universities  or  technical  colleges.  In  some  cases 
those  who  are  awaiting  some  civil  appointment  act  as  town  officials, 
i.  e.,  young  men  who  have  had  a  practical  education  in  various  admin- 
istrative branches,  after  being  duly  qualified  are  appointed  to  some 
post.  Hanover  does  not  possess  any  special  school  for  teaching  the 
theory  of  municipal  administration,  as  there  are  in  Dusseldorf,  Cologne, 
Franivfort-on-Main  and  Munich.  Courses  of  lectures  are  delivered 
from  time  to  time  for  officials  in  many  German  towns,  as  also  in 
Hanover.  In  addition  to  this,  students  in  Germany  have  opportunities 
of  suitable  instruction  in  almost  all  universities  and  technical  colleges. 
We  would  recommend  reference  to  the  extensive  and  valuable  litera- 
ture on  this  subject  and  especially:  (1)  Statistical  Yearbook  of  Ger- 
man To^\^ls,  published  by  Xeefe,  Breslau;  (2)  Municipal  Yearbook, 
published  by  Lindemann  &  Sudekum,  Jena;  (3)  comprehensive  col- 
lection of  works,  non-periodicals:  Wuttke,  The  German  Towns,  two 
volumes,  Leipzig,  1904;  Bucher,  The  Big  Towns;  Yearbook  of  the 
Gehestiflung,  volume  9,  Dresden,  1903 ;  Preuss,  The  Development  of 
the  German  Municipal  System;  Hassert,  The  Towns,  Leipzig,  1907; 
Weber,  The  Big  To^\ti  and  Its  Social  Problems,  Leipzig,  1908  ;  Stengel- 
Fleischmann,  Dictionary  of  the  System  of  German  States  and  Admin- 
istrative Regulations,  volume  two,  Tubingen,  1911,  under  the  article, 
'Community';  Von  Kaufmann,  Municipal  Finances,  Leipzig,  1906; 
writings  of  the  Association  for  Social  Politics,  volume  127:1,  The 
Municipal  Finances ;  Most,  The  German  Town  and  Its  Administrative 
Policy,  Leipzig,  1912. 

"Of  comprehensive  works  on  municipal  promotion  of  economic  and 
social  politics :  Adukes  &  Bentler,  The  Social  Problems  of  German 
Towns,  Leipzig,  1903;  Damaschke,  Problems  of  Municipal  Politics, 
Jena,  1904;  Lindemann,  The  German  Municipal  Administration, 
Stuttgart,  1906,  and  The  Politics  of  Work  People  and  Promotion  of 
Economics  in  the  Administration  of  German  Towns,  Stuttgart,  1904; 
writings  of  the  Association  of  Social  Politics,  volumes  128  and  129, 
on  'Municipal  Services.' " 

96 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Haxover"s  Municipal  Restaurants. 

Hanover,  German}-. — At  the  junction  of  six  streets,  in  the  heart  of 
the  retail  district  of  Hanover,  the  city  owns  a  three-sided  block  of  land, 
possibly  one  and  one-half  acres  in  size.  On  the  narrow  end  of  this 
block  stands  a  cafe,  one  story  high.  Back  of  the  cafe,  on  either  side, 
the  little  block  is  bordered  with  tall  shade  trees,  which  also  extend 
across  the  broad  end  of  the  block.  Within  the  inclosure  of  the  trees, 
at  the  far  end  of  the  block,  is  a  bit  of  green  grass  with  winding  paths 
through  it,  and  benches  on  which  to  sit.  An  old  countrywoman  (I 
have  bought  my  morning  apple  from  her  so  often  that  we  now  greet 
each  other,  "Morgen,  Mutter" — "Morgen,  Sohn'')  has  a  little  fruit 
stand.  A  few  yards  distant  from  the  stand,  perhaps  thirty  feet  back 
from  the  sidewalk,  is  a  public  comfort  station,  for  men  and  women, 
with  another  old  woman  in  charge.  The  middle  portion  of  the  block 
is  laid  out  as  an  open-air  dining  and  drinking  garden,  with  chairs 
around  small  tables  and  on  one  side  a  pavilion  for  an  orchestra. 
During  the  summer  this  little  tree  and  shrub  inclosed  garden,  situated 
in  the  commercial  heart  of  a  city  of  300,000  people,  is  visited  by  hun- 
dreds of  townspeople,  clerks,  shoppers  and  strangers,  who  look  through 
the  green  walls,  while  they  eat  and  drink,  at  the  passing  panorama  of 
city  life.  At  this  season,  when  the  chill  of  autumn  is  giving  place  to 
the  decidedly  shivery  cold  of  approaching  winter,  few  are  sutficiently 
hardy  to  take  a  place  at  one  of  the  outdoor  tables.  They  go  inside 
the  cafe,  which  accommodates  perhaps  200  people  when  filled,  in  real 
comfort,  and  at  very  moderate  prices.  These  prices,  by  the  way,  are 
regulated  by  the  city  government  through  one  of  its  bureaus,  and  can 
not  be  advanced  by  the  lessee  of  the  cafe  without  official  permission. 

This  little  block  of  ground,  with  its  artistic  cafe  and  cafe  garden,  its 
belt  of  tall  green  trees,  its  public  comfort  station  and  its  restful  bit  of 
green  sward,  is  a  veritable  island  surrounded  by  busy  streets  lined  with 
tall  buildings.  The  city  could  readily  sell  it  for  an  enormous  sum,  or 
could  lease  it,  to  be  occupied  with  tall  commercial  buildings,  for  an 
annual  rental  running  above  a  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Instead,  the 
city  government  has  preferred  to  maintain  it  as  an  open  space,  for 
light  and  air  and  view,  in  its  busiest  section.  It  earns  a  good  revenue — 
the  lessee  of  the  cafe  pays  seventeen  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  the 
city  and  would  cheerfully  pay  more  in  dm'  rntio  if  permitted  to 
increase  the  ground  size  of  the  cafe — but  this  is  ])re(isely  what  the  city 
won't  permit.     'J'hey  have  turned  down  pro])osition8  to  that  effect,  as 

97 


if  money  were  of  no  importance  to  them — and  it  is  not  when  to  get  the 
money  they  find  themselves  called  upon  to  sacrifice  municipal  health, 
comfort  or  beauty. 

The  little  cafe  is  one  of  fourteen  owned  by  the  city,  all  operated  under 
lease  by  private  citizens^  and  all,  like  this  one,  subject  to  municipal 
regulation  of  service  and  prices.  There  are  any  number  of  fashion- 
able and  expensive  cafes  and  restaurants  in  Hanover,  where  the  sporty 
and  the  ennuied  can  get  whatever  they  want  by  paying  the  three  or 
four  prices  for  it  usually  demanded  in  such  places  everywhere.  The 
city  government  does  not  concern  itself  about  these  resorts  of  the 
rich,  except  as  they  come  under  the  general  police  regulations.  It 
does  concern  itself  to  provide,  for  the  great  majority  who  are  not  rich, 
but  who  must  make  every  penny  count,  cafe  and  restaurant  service, 
excellent  in  kind  and  at  prices  which  the  majority  can  afford  to  pay. 
Most  of  these  city-owned  cafes  are  in  the  public  parks.  There,  on 
summer  Sundays,  or  on  a  holiday,  thousands  of  the  workers  with  their 
families  go,  to  hear  the  excellent  orchestral  or  band  music,  and  to  sit 
in  the  shade  of  the  trees,  or  walk  in  the  woodland  paths,  and  to  share, 
in  family  groups,  by  twos  or  threes  or  singly,  the  service  of  the  cafe. 
For  two  to  five  cents  each — distance  varying — they  ride  to  one  of  the 
parks  in  an  excellent  street  car — and  the  money  buys  a  seat,  inva- 
riably. In  the  park,  for  another  ten  cents,  each  gets  a  big  cup  of 
bully  good  coffee,  or  a  big  glass  of  real  beer,  with  crisp  rolls  or  biscuits 
or  a  fat  slice  of  the  black  bread  of  the  country.  Meats  are  very  high- 
priced  in  Germany.  One  of  the  bachelors  at  the  consulate,  inviting 
two  or  three  of  us  in  to  supper,  bade  me  bring  a  pound  of  pork  chops. 
I  paid  39  cents  for  that  pound  of  pig,  which  in  Houston,  as  nearly  as 
I  can  remember,  would  have  cost  me  not  over  20  cents,  perhaps  25, 
Yet  the  workingman  visiting  the  city  restaurant  in  the  park  can  get 
a  slice  of  meat  with  his  black  bread,  a  substantial  slice,  too,  for  another 
ten  or  fifteen  cents.  Just  what  kind  of  animal  the  meat — some  of  it — 
was  when  alive,  I  wouldn't  like  to  say  offhand.  I  have  never  tried  the 
experiment  of  shouting  "Whoa"  to  a  platterful  of  it,  but  the  thought 
has  occurred  to  me  once  or  twice.  One  thing  I  am  sure  of,  and  that  is, 
the  animal  which  supplied  the  meat  was  a  healthy  animal  when 
slaughtered  for  food  purposes,  or  the  rigid  expert  inspection  of  the 
city's  slaughtering  bureau  would  have  forbidden  its  use  for  human 
food.  It  is  a  fact  that  scores  of  thousands  of  horses,  no  longer  useful 
for  labor,  are  each  year  slaughtered  for  human  food  in  Germany  and 
in  other  European  coimtries,  too. 

This  brings  in  the  subject  of  customs  tariffs  in  Germany.  The  im- 
perial government  is  really  controlled  by  some  15,000  of  the  old  lords 
of  the  land — titled  owners  of  big  estates  in  Prussia,  politically  classified 
as  agrarians.  The  manufacturing  interests  of  Germany  have  during 
the  past  thirty  years  grown  to  be  far  more  important,  in  respect  to 
capital  invested  and  hands  employed,  than  the  farming  interests  of  the 
country;  but  the  agrarians,  preventing  a  readjustment  of  electoral 
districts,  are  still  able  to  make  a  few  thousand  votes  in  each  of  the 
districts  which  they  control  count  for  more  than  200,000  or  300,000 

98 


votes  of  city  working  men  in  the  manufacturing  districts.  So  they 
manage  still  to  hold  the  whip  hand  in  the  imperial  parliament.  They 
have  been  strong  for  the  policy  of  protective  tariffs,  but  they  have 
taken  the  lion's  share  of  the  protection  for  themselves.  The  manu- 
facturers of  Germany  have  not  been  able,  like  the  manufacturers  of 
America,  to  shuffle  the  tariff  cards  to  suit  themselves.  They  have 
had  some  protection,  but  the  major  part  has  been  taken  by  the  landed 
proprietors,  producers,  by  wage  and  tenant  labor,  of  the  country's  food 
supply. 

These  great  landlords  have  had  the  ear  of  the  imperial  government, 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  kaiser.  Wilhelm  appoints  his  ministers  and  they 
run  the  government  pretty  much  subject  to  his  ^nll.  The  parliament 
cuts  in  now  and  again  with  a  kind  of  negative  protest  against  one 
policy  or  another,  but  the  theory  of  the  kaiser  is  that  whatever  of 
representative  government  the  people  of  Prussia  or  of  the  empire  enjoy, 
within  the  limits  of  their  written  constitutions,  is  a  free-will  grant  from 
the  divine-right  ruler.  And  not  enough  power  has  been  granted  the 
parliament  to  enable  it  to  make  and  enforce  any  national  policy. 
Wilhelm  is  determined  German  farms  shall  produce  the  German  food 
supply,  and  joins  with  the  agrarian  element  which  would  shut  foreign 
meats  out  of  Germany  as  much  as  possible.  This  policy  enables  the 
landlords  to  get  top  prices  for  meat,  but  it  is  tough  on  the  industrial 
element  which  wants  meat  to  eat  and  has  to  pay  high  prices  for  it  out 
of  wages  which  average  very  low  as  compared  with  wage  scales  in 
America,  or  even,  in  a  good  many  trades,  with  the  wages  paid  in 
England. 

Municipal  restaurant  undertakings,  then,  like  those  which  I  have 
briefly  described  in  Hanover,  are  local  governmental  efforts  to  take  a 
part  of  the  curse  of  dear  meat  and  bread  off  the  city's  industrial  work- 
ers. Collectively,  the  city  restaurants  produce  a  considerable  yearly  net 
revenue,  but  more  important  than  that  they  bring  food  within  reach 
of  a  multitude  at  low  prices  and  of  guaranteed  good  quality,  even 
though  it  be  not  always  of  known  conventional  origin,  I  have  eaten 
meats  of  four  or  five  different  colors,  cooked  and  cold,  from  a  big 
platter  on  a  long  table  in  the  open  at  Hanover's  beautiful  Tiergarten 
park,  and  have  washed  it — and  the  l)lack  bread  spread  witli  real 
butter — down  with  foaming  beer  made  from  real  sure-enough  hops 
and  malt — and  been  content  to  ask  no  questions,  the  answers  to  which 
might  have  affected  my  American  peace  of  mind.  What  a  man  doesn't 
know  very  often  doesn't  trouble  him. 

If  I  were  jilanning  a  new  city,  to  stand  where  Houston  now  stands, 
and  to  become  Die  kind  of  city  Houston  now  is,  I  sliould  locate  half  a 
dozen  cafe  and  restaurant  sites  aiouiid  within  the  chief  centers  of 
commercial  and  industrial  activity,  and  urge  tiiat  the  city  government 
lease  them  to  energetic  citizens,  sulg'ect  to  regulation  and  supervision, 
as  to  quality  of  food  and  prices,  by  a  city  bureau  charged  with  llic  duty 
of  safeguarding  the  people's  food  supply.    There  seems  to  be  no  ques- 

99 


tion  but  that  a  man  with  a  special  knack  for  it  can  manage  a  restaur- 
ant better  than  a  man  with  no  talent  for  the  task,  but  who  might  be 
assigned  to  it  perfunctorily  by  a  city  administration.  And  there  seems 
to  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  man  with  the  knack  for  the  job  ^\ill  make 
a  better  success  of  it  if  he  has  the  incentive  of  o'WTiership  and  prospec- 
tive profits  to  stimulate  his  energw  But  there  seems  also  to  be  good 
Avarrant  for  believing  that  when  the  city,  through  ownership  of  the  res- 
taurant land  and  building,  and  through  expert  regulation  of  food 
quality  and  prices,  holds  a  check  on  the  profit  ambition  of  the  lessee, 
the  best  results  all  around  are  obtained  for  everybody.  The  lessee 
gradually  accumulates  a  comfortable  fortune;  the  city  gets  a  satisfac- 
tory rental  income  from  its  property,  and  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
citizens  get  good  service  and  good  food  at  fair  prices. 


100 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 

Munich's  Model  Municipal  Eepokts. 

Munich,  German}^ — With  this  article  I  transmit  (for  filing  in  the 
Houston  Public  Library)  bound  copies  of  the  latest  municipal  reports 
of  the  City  of  Munich.  These  reports,  differing  only  in  detail  from 
similar  annual  reports  published  by  all  German  cities,  form  a  model 
of  municipal  accounting.  I  know  of  nothing  at  once  so  complete,  so 
informing,  so  readily  understood  by  the  average  citizen,  published  by 
any  American  city.  They  are  of  course  printed  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, yet  anyone  with  even  a  little  knowledge  of  Deutsch  can  quickly 
get  the  sense  of  them,  and  appreciate  the  thoroughness  with  which  the 
business  affairs  of  the  city  are  made  known  to  its  citizen  stockliolders. 

The  value  of  this  article  consists  chiefly  in  its  demonstration  of  the 
means  by  which  German  cities  get  skilled  labor  in  all  their  depart- 
ments. I  submitted  to  the  magistral  of  Munich  a  list  of  questions, 
covering  chiefly  (as  instructed  by  my  ov^n  city  government)  the 
finances.    The  mayor  of  Munich  sent  me  the  following  reply : 

Munich,  2oth  October,  1912. — Mr.  Frank  Putnam,  Special  Com- 
missioner of  the  City  of  Houston,  Texas,  U.  S.  A. 

Re  the  conditions  of  the  Municipality  of  Munich : 

The  questions  put  are  answered,  as  follows: 

1.  According  to  the  last  census  in  1910  the  Municipality  of  Munich 
had  595,053  inhabitants. 

2.  The  gross  revenues  of  the  Town  of  ^lunicli  amounted  in  1911 
to  218,844,431.70  marks.  (See  page  1004  of  the  inclosed  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  nmnicipal  affairs;  2nd  Part,  Financial  Results.) 

3  and  4.  The  various  revenues  and  their  amounts,  as  also  the  ap- 
plication of  tbem  (expenses)  may  be  seen  from  tlie  accompanying 
flnancial  report  (incJosure  1).  Compare  the  statements,  p.  2,  with 
45,  as  also  special  references  thereto,  pp.  47-525,  a  com])ilation,  pp. 
712-713,  and  special  references  thereto,  pp.  557-711  ;  further,  a  synop- 
sis, pp.  715-793,  and  special  references  thereto,  pp.  794-895;  and  lastly, 
a  compilation,  pp.  954-955,  and  special  references  thereto,  pp.  897-951. 

5.  The  bonds  j)ayab]e  to  bearer  at  the  end  of  the  year  1911  for  the 
Town  of  Munich  amounted  to  2G7,909,r;00  marks.  (Page  972  of  the 
report.)  The  Municipality  of  Munich  has  been  in  the  habit  of  issuing 
for  some  years  bonds,  bearing  interest,  for  defraying  the  expenses  of 

101 


such  objects  only  as  are  a  source  of  profit;  other  public  works  and 
ornamental  spaces  bringing  in  no  revenues  are,  as  a  rule,  paid  for  not 
by  means  of  loans  but  out  of  the  funds  received  from  various  services. 

6.  The  Municipality  of  Munich  is  liable  for  the  redemption  of  the 
bonds  it  issues,  and  for  the  interest  on  them,  with  their  whole  property 
and  the  money  which  it  can  raise  by  taxes.  The  municipal  authorities 
have  to.  render  an  account  to  the  supervisory  board,  i.  e.,  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  government  of  Upper  Bavaria. 

7.  The  public  works  are  as  a  rule  supplied  by  contractors,  tenders 
having  been  invited;  these  contractors  are  required  when  undertaking 
to  do  the  work  assigned  or  when  delivering  supplies,  to  furnish  ade- 
quate security  to  the  city  treasurer,  consisting  of  hard  cash  or  value 
certificates;  the  amoimt  of  security  to  be  rendered  is  determined  in 
each  instance  and  depends  on  the  extent  of  the  work  undertaken  or  the 
amount  of  the  supplies  to  be  purchased. 

8.  The  municipality  is  entitled  to  start  and  operate  public  institu- 
tions and  industrial  undertakings  intended  for  the  public  good,  so  far 
as  the  regulations  of  the  Bavarian  communal  standing  order,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  legal  statute,  dated  the  20th  April,  1869;  19th  Jan- 
uary, 1872  (Arts.  1,  38  and  84),  are  not  violated.  Paragraphs  1  and 
159  of  the  imperial  trade  regulations  also  affect  this  point  as  regards 
the  industrial  undertakings  started  and  managed  by  the  Municipality 
of  Munich.     (See  the  answer  under  Xo.  9.) 

9.  With  a  view  to  extending  and  supplementing  the  tramway  serv- 
ice, the  municipal  authorities  determined  in  the  course  of  this  year  to 
give  a  concession  to  a  joint  stock  company  to  organize  a  service  of 
motor  omnibuses  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years  for  a  certain  payment  on 
certain  routes.  In  addition  to  this,  the  municipalty  has  in  the  past 
year  contributed  51  per  cent  of  the  capital  for  founding  a  company  for 
the  establishment  of  electrical  works  outside  ]\Iunich,  so  as  to  have 
more  electricity  at  their  disposal  without  the  expense  of  enlarging  their 
own  works. 

10.  The  following  public  services  are  in  the  possession  of  the  City 
of  Munich,  and  are  managed  by  it:  (a)  The  municipal  wine  vaults, 
(b)  the  electrical  works,  (c)  the  gas  works,  (d)  the  tramways,  (e)  the 
water. 

For  the  financial  results  of  these  undertakings,  see  pp.  10,  100,  110, 
124  and  292  of  the  report. 

The  gas  works  and  the  tramways  of  Mimich  were  formerly  in  the 
hands  of  a  joint  stock  company.  The  gas  works  were  taken  over  by 
the  municipality  on  November  1,  1899,  a  sum  of  7,720,000  marks- 
having  been  paid  over  by  way  of  commutation.  The  service  of  the 
tramways  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  city  on  July  1,  1907,  a  sum  of 
535,000  marks  having  been  paid  by  way  of  commutation.  In  return 
for  the  payment  of  the  above  sum  for  the  gas  works,  all  the  buildings, 
machinery,  plant  and  equipment  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  City  of 

102 


Munich.  In  the  case  of  the  tramways  the  commutation  sum  was  paid 
over  to  the  former  company  for  the  houses  only,  which  belonged  to  it; 
for  according  to  the  terms  of  agreement  as  to  this  service  between  the 
former  company  and  the  municipality  the  latter  had  already  been 
gradually  electrifying  the  tramways  at  the  expense  of  the  community. 

.11.  As  to  the  annual  receipts  from  these  services,  see  the  financial 
report.  The  synopsis  of  contents  which  precedes  the  report,  p.  3, 
renders  it  easy  to  find  any  particular  service.  The  net  receipts  are 
applied  for  (a)  the  interest  and  the  amortisation  of  the  costs  of  plant; 
(b)  the  depreciation  to  be  based  on  commercial  calculations,  as  a 
reserve  for  a  renewal  fund  for  the  works. 

After  deducting  the  expenditure  for  interest  and  amortisation  of  the 
costs  of  plant  and  for  depreciation,  the  municipal  services  showed,  in 
1911,  the  following  clear  surplus  profits: 

The  wine  vaults 116,262.26  marks.  (Seep.    99  of  the  report.) 

The  electrical  works.  .  .  1,650,964.64  marks.  (See  p.  109  of  the  report.) 

The  gas  works 1,527,184.11  marks.  (See  p.  123  of  the  report.) 

The  tramways   1,331,147.44  marks.  (See  p.  145  of  the  report.) 

Waterworks    153,810.00  marks.  (See  p.  305  of  the  report.) 

These  net  profits  are  placed  to  the  account  of  the  municipal  treasurer 
for  defraying  the  expenses  for  the  general  requirements  of  the  adminis- 
trative departments  of  the  municipality.  (Group  8,  "Public  Ar- 
rangements and  Institutions" — see  pp.  218-459  of  the  report.)  The 
rates  and  charges  fixed  by  the  municipal  statutes  are  not  affected  by  the 
amount  of  the  profits  cleared  from  these  services,  but  in  the  event  of 
any  being  worked  at  a  loss  they  are,  of  course,  liable  to  be  raised 

12.  This  does  not  apply  to  Munich. 

13.  Regarding  the  fares  charged  on  the  municipal  tramways,  the 
prices  for  gas  and  cokes  from  the  gas  works,  for  electric  current  from 
the  municipal  electrical  works,  and  for  the  supply  of  water  from  the 
municipal  water  works,  refer  to  the  inclosures,  2-6. 

14.  The  wages  paid  to  the  employes  on  the  pul)lic  works  may  be 
seen  on  reference  to  inclosure  7. 

15.  The  communal  taxes  in  Bavaria  form  a  certain  additional  per- 
centage to  the  government  taxes.  The  communal  income  tax  for  the 
year  1912  is,  in  Munich,  62  per  cent  of  the  government  income  tax. 
The  amount  of  the  assessment  is  fixed  from  year  to  year  and  varies 
according  to  the  deficit  of  the  communal  budget  for  that  year. 

16.  This  percentage  of  62  per  cent  applies  to  all  inhabitants  alike. 
Besides  the  income  tax  the  government  levied  a  tax  on  the  income  de- 
rived from  capital  of  each  year,  a  house  and  land  property  tax  and  a 
tax  on  trade  licenses.  The  municipality  levies  an  additional  tax  on 
these  various  kinds  amounting  to  186  j)er  cent  for  the  tax  on  the  in- 
come from  cafiital ;  310  j)er  cent  for  the  house  and  land  tax;  310  per 
cent  for  tax  on  trade  licenses. 

103 


Tlio  mayor  and  the  councillors,  who  have  legal  training,  are  chosen 
for  three  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  they  are  appointed  for 
life  or  take  their  conge.  The  mimicipal  secretaries  and  other  officials, 
after  serving  ten  years,  are  also  appointed  for  life.  No  one  can  serve  in 
municipal  office  unless  he  is  a  subject  of  the  German  Empire  and  has 
his  domicile  in  Munich. 

18.  The  municipal  services  in  Munich  are  under  the  management 
of  such  officials  only  as  have  a  special  experience  in  each  case.  Para- 
graphs l-i  and  15  of  the  statutes  in  force  for  Munich  apply  to  a  can- 
didate for  any  mmiicipal  appointment,  which  are  as  follows : 

PARAGRAPH  XIV. 

First — A  candidate  for  an  appointment  in  the  administrative  or 
treasury  posts  must  possess  the  following  qualifications,  as  a  rule : 

(a)  Certificate  of  having  passed  the  state  examination  in  the  special 
subject  with  a  mark  of  distinction  for  which  they  will  be  employed  for 
officials  of  classes  1  and  2. 

(b)  The  same  certificate  for  officials  in  classes  3,  4  and  5,  so  far 
as  this  may  be  required  by  the  importance  of  the  office  held,  or  other- 
wise a  certificate  of  having  passed  the  examination  held  at  the  end  in 
the  special  subject  of  their  employment,  at  any  rate  a  certificate  of 
having  passed  the  examination  for  intermediate  posts  in  the  govern- 
ment, or  a  municipality  with  distinction  and  in  addition  to  this  the 
final  examnation  of  a  middle  school  with  nine  classes.  The  examina- 
tion for  the  intermediate  treasury  posts,  class  1,  is  regarded  as  identi- 
cal wath  that  for  the  intermediate  administrative  posts  in  the  govern- 
ment or  municipal  services. 

(c)  For  officials  in  classes  6  and  7  a  certificate  of  having  passed 
the  examination  for  the  intermediate  administrative  posts  in  the  gov- 
ernment or  municipal  service,  or  proof  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
required  for  the  one-year  service  in  the  army,  or  certificate  of  having 
passed  the  examination  for  the  intermediate  treasury  posts,  class  2, 
with  a  mark  of  distinction. 

(d)  Officials  of  classes  8,  9,  10  and  11  must  have  attended  several 
classes  of  an  intermediate  school,  or  hold  the  leaving  certificate  of  some 
continuation  school  in  lieu  of  the  Sunday  school,  and  in  addition  for 
class  8,  a  certificate  of  having  passed  the  examination  for  the  inter- 
mediate administrative  posts  either  in  the  government  or  municipal 
service.  For  the  other  classes  they  must  have  passed  the  examination 
successfully  which  the  municipality  prescribes  as  necessary  for  the 
appointment  of  any  official. 

(e)  A  woman  to  be  appointed  in  class  12  must  have  passed  the 
final  examination  in  a  high  school  for  girls,  or  of  the  Eiemerschmid 
Commercial  School,  or  of  some  institution  of  the  same  standing;  at 
any  rate  she  must  possess  the  leaving  certificate  of  a  commercial  con- 
tinuation school  and  must  have  passed  the  examination  for  clerkships 
as  is  prescribed  for  classes  9  and  10. 

104 


Second — Officials  of  the  9,  10,  11  and  12th  classes  must,  before  the 
expiration  of  the  probationary  period  (paragraph  39,  No.  5),  submit 
themselves  for  an  examination  defined  for  that  purpose  by  the  munici- 
pal coimcil,  and  if  they  fail  to  pass  this  a  second  time,  must  quit  the 
service  of  the  city  altogether.  The  arrangements  for  carrying  out 
these  regulations  are  made  by  the  to\vn  council. 

Third — Officials  who  are  desirous  of  qualifying  for  a  municipal  ap- 
pointment from  class  7  upwards,  but  do  not  possess  the  certificate  for 
the  one  year's  military  service,  must  submit  to  an  examination  of  the 
same  standard  defined  by  the  town  council  for  this  purpose. 

Fourth — All  officials  seeking  admission  to  the  intermediate  posts 
in  the  government  or  municipal  administrative  service  must  take  part 
in  the  preparatory  courses  as  arranged  by  the  to^^Ti  council.  Only  those 
who  have  passed  these  preparatory  courses  with  distinction  may  receive 
a  certificate  for  admission  to  the  above  mentioned  examination. 

PARAGRAPH  XV, 

First — Officials  with  technical  knowledge  in  classes  1  and  2  (gov- 
ernment architects  and  those  engaged  at  the  board  of  works)  must 
have  passed  the  government  examination,  so  far  as  there  is  any  such 
provided  for  their  profession,  with  distinction,  while  electrical  engi- 
neers, mechanical  engineers  and  chemists,  for  whom  there  is  no  govern- 
ment examination  provided,  and  further  engineers,  former  pupils  of 
industrial  schools,  to  whom  the  admission  to  the  government  exam- 
inations was  formerly  allowed  but  refused  later,  must  have  obtained  a 
diploma  of  a  German  technical  university  in  their  special  subject,  with 
distinction.  All  competitors  for  posts  in  classes  1  and  2  must  have 
had  experience  for  several  years  in  some  responsible  position  and  pro- 
duce proof  of  efficiency  in  their  special  line. 

Second — Classes  3,  4  and  5  are  open  to  engineers  only  who  possess 
a  diploma.  Proofs  can  be  demanded  as  to  the  success  with  whicli  they 
have  passed  the  government  examination  in  proportion  to  the  impor- 
tance of  the  post  to  which  tliey  are  to  be  transferred.  (Surveying  engi- 
neers, district  engineers  for  local  board  of  works  committee.) 

Tiiird — Class  6  includes  the  preliminary  post  for  engineers  with 
diplomas. 

Fourth — For  ol)taining  a  post  in  class  7  or  8  a  certificate  of  having 
passed  through  the  school  for  building-workmen  is  generally  required. 
They  are,  however,  open  to  especially  clever  technicists  whose  training 
has  been  confined  to  practical  work  only. 

Fifth — A  certificate  of  attendance  at  a  school  for  building-workmen 
or  a  certificate  of  having  passed  the  final  examination  of  an  industrial 
continuation  school  or  a  school  for  some  special  craft  suffices  for  ad- 
mission to  classes  9  and  10.  Tlic  applicant  for  a  future  post  with 
whicli  an  unusual  degree  of  responsibility  is  connected,  must  furnish 
proof  of  his  possessing  tlie  necessary  cajjabilities  and  kTiowledge  re- 
quired by  giving  probationary  service,  the  duration  of  which  is  de- 
termined by  special  regulations  referring  to  this  service. 

105 


The  preceding  contains  the  answer,  also,  as  to  the  preparation  neces- 
sary for  the  appointment  of  an  applicant  for  municipal  service. 

It  will  be  observed,  from  brief  study  of  these  reports  on  file  in  our 
public  library,  that  salaries  of  municipal  officials  in  Munich  are  not 
high,  as  compared  with  salaries  of  similar  officials  in  large  American 
cities.  For  instance,  department  chiefs,  in  charge  of  waterworks, 
streets,  etc.,  get  from  9,000  marks  (about  $2,250)  a  year,  down  to  as 
little  as  3,000  marks,  or  about  $750.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
however,  that  the  mark  is  in  Germany  what  the  dollar  is  in  America — 
the  unit  of  the  currency.  While  it  will  not  buy  as  much  here  as  a 
dollar  buys  at  home — indeed,  the  traveler  finds  little  difference  in  the 
cost  of  living  here  and  at  home — yet  the  native,  who  knows  better  how 
and  when  and  where  to  buy,  does  in  many  respects  make  the  mark  do 
the  work  of  a  dollar  in  the  United  States.  Further,  the  German  cities 
are  over-officered — or  we  would  so  regard  them  in  our  country.  There 
are  more  than  enough  men  to  do  the  work,  if  it  were  done  at  the  rapid 
pace  we  Americans  have  adopted.  But  our  German  friends  are  not  in 
a  hurry.  They  have  time  to  eat  four  or  five  meals  a  day,  and  to  take  a 
late  supper  with  beer  or  wine  (according  to  the  length  of  their  purses), 
in  the  cafes  at  night.  The  building  occupied  by  the  police  department 
of  Hanover,  with  300,000  inhabitants,  is  big  enough  to  house  a  regi- 
ment— and  pretty  nearly  does,  a  regiment  of  clerical  officials  and 
functionaries'. 

I  transmit  also,  with  the  Munich  reports,  reports  received  from  the 
city  government  of  Frankfort-on-Main,  which  contain  some  special 
features  of  interest  to  students  of  municipal  government. 


106 


CHAPTER  XYIII. 

German  Management  of  a  Difficult  Problem. 

Leipzig,  German}'. — As  Elbert  Hubbard  observes  in  his  little  sawed- 
off  and  jammed-down  magazinelet,  "Those  who  don't  know  how  to  take 
the  Philistine  had  better  not.''  So,  those  who  don't  know  how  to  take 
this  brief  article  had  better  not. 

Leipzig  is'  famous  as  the  chief  publishing  center  of  Germany,  and 
has  won  celebrity  during  the  past  two  years  as  the  site  of  the  largest 
and  most  magnificent  railroad  station  in  Europe.  This  station  will 
cost  when  completed  over  $35,000,000,  Here  as  elsewhere  in  Germany, 
where  all  but  a  trifle  over  1  per  cent  of  all  the  railways  are  owned  and 
operated  by  the  government,  city  railroad  stations,  like  the  roadbed, 
are  built  as  well  as  money  and  the  best  skill  can  build  them,  regardless 
of  cost,  because  it  is  figured  to  be  economical  to  build  for  permanency 
from  the  start.  The  state  railway  system,  and  other  state-owned  serv- 
ices, produce  over  one-half  of  all  the  Prussian  kingdom's  public 
revenue,  and  net  about  $75,000,000  a  year  in  clear  gain.  The  service, 
by  the  way,  compared  with  our  American  railroads,  class  for  class,  is 
distinctly  better  than  our  own,  to  say  nothing  of  being  a  lot  safer.  It 
takes  time  for  an  American  to  get  used  to  the  side  aisle  and  the  little 
separate  compartments,  but  when  the  first  shock  of  prejudice  subsides, 
and  one  gets  the  hang  of  the  system,  the  average  American  in  Europe 
will  confeses  to  you  that  he  prefers  the  German  way  of  transporting 
the  public.  On  the  theory  that  a  man  ought  to  be  willing  to  try  every- 
thing once,  I  have  ridden  in  all  four  classes  of  German  railway  com- 
partments— from  the  exceedingly  clean,  comfortable,  elegant  first- 
class  down  through  the  very  nice  second,  the  severely  plain  and  often 
crowded  third  to  the  bare  wooden  compartment  with  seats  for  only 
about  one-third  of  the  passengers — as  a  rule — in  the  fourth.  I  have 
stood  on  my  one  good  leg,  in  a  mixed  crowd  of  private  soldiers  and 
farm  laborers,  during  a  run  of  one  hundred  miles  and  been  glad  of 
the  experience.  The  only  way  to  get  acquainted  with  a  foreign  people, 
so  far  as  I  can  figure  out,  is  to  meet  'em.  And  T  found  them  very  jolly 
folks  indeed,  either  too  poor  to  pay  for  scats  or  sensil)le  and  sturdy 
enough  to  lake  that  means  of  saving  a  few  marks.  They  rode  for  less 
than  one  cent  a  niik',  and  they  rode  just  as  rapidly  as  the  folks  who  paid 
something  over  four  cents  a  mile  in  the  first-class  compartments. 

But  this  is  not  what  I  set  out  to  discuss  in  this  chapter.  My  subject 
is  the  German  police  method  of  controlling  the  underworld  in  the 
cities.  This  is  the  subject  of  no  end  of  diniciilly  for  the  authorities  of 
all  cities,  although  it  is  a  subject  seldom  discussed  in  ])rint  and  thus  is 
probaldy  not  often  taken  under  consideration  by  citizens.  During 
twenty-seven  years  of  newspaper  work  in  many  American  cities,  sev- 

107 


eral  years  of  that  time  serving  as  a  police  reporter  and  thus  in  daily 
contact  with  the  seamy  side  of  city  life,  I  have  often  wondered  if  there 
were  any  other  phase  of  our  American  life  so  cruel,  so  hrutally  heart- 
less, as  the  treatment  usually  meted  out  to  fallen  women.  And  I  have 
often  wondered  if  there  were  not,  somewhere  in  the  world,  a  people 
sufhciently  civilized  to  have  worked  out  a  juster  method  of  dealing  with 
them  than  that  which  disgraces  the  average  American  city. 

The  policy  of  segregation  has  been  pursued  by  most  American  cities 
during  my  period  of  observation.  Herded  like  beasts  within  narrow 
limits,  and  there  denied  the  most  elementary  liberties  of  human  beings, 
these  unfortunates  (the  victims,  most  of  them,  of  society's  uncon- 
fessed  savagery),  have  too  often  been  made  the  fruitful  source  of 
blackmail  by  conscienceless  police  departments,  and  sometimes  have 
even  been  made  a  source  of  revenue  for  public  use.  In  one  Western 
city,  twenty  years  ago,  a  substantial  part  of  the  public  school  fund 
was  drawTi  each  month  from  fines  levied  by  the  police  justice  upon 
these  women.  Voluntary  societies,  usually  composed  of  benevolent 
women,  have  in  several  American  cities  done  the  little  they  could, 
without  much  official  encouragement  and  with  inadequate  funds,  to 
help  a  few  of  the  unfortunate  redeem  themselves.  But  as  a  rule  the 
American  police  system  has  refused  to  recognize  the  possibility  that  a 
woman  in  hell,  and  fully  aware  of  it,  might  possibly,  in  all  sincerity, 
wish  to  escape  therefrom.  I  have  Icnown  such  women,  in  American 
cities,  to  be  hounded  by  the  police  back  into  the  pit  from  which  they 
were  trying  desperately  to  climb  up  to  the  lost  level  of  obscure  re- 
spectability. 

German  police  officials  assure  me  that  nowhere,  in  that  country,  are 
these  women  segregated  into  special  districts,  nor  denied  the  usual 
liberty  of  action  accorded  to  other  human  beings.  Every  resident  of  a 
German  city  is  registered  by  the  police  department.  If  a  traveler  stays 
over  a  month  in  any  city  his  name,  his  local  address,  his  business  or 
profession  or  trade  and  his  home  address  are  all  required  to  be  filed 
with  the  police  department.  Thus  it  is  possible  for  the  police  to  ke6p  a 
check  on  every  man,  woman  or  child  within  their  jurisdiction.  Even 
the  traveler  stopping  over  night  in  a  German  hotel  is  required  to  give 
his  name,  occupation  and  home  address.  In  the  Leipzig  police  depart- 
ment— as  in  all  others — these  addresses,  of  permanent  residents  and  of 
visitors  who  stay  longer  than  one  month,  are  filed  away,  listed  by 
streets,  and  subjected  to  constant  revision. 

There  is  a  special  registry  for  fallen  women  in  each  German  city 
police  department.  The  police  are  presumed  to  know  every  woman  who 
lives  with  a  man  or  with  men  out  of  wedlock.  In  Berlin  this  list  runs 
into  the  thousands,  in  Leipzig  over  800,  in  Hanover  to  an  even  300. 
These  names,  of  course,  are  not  open  to  press  or  public.  The  women 
are  graded  into  four  classes.  In  the  first  class  are  those  who,  known 
to  the  police  as  housekeepers,  live  with  one  man  out  of  wedlock.  These 
women  are  not  required  to  report  at  police  headquarters,  but  are  re- 
quired to  send  to  police  headquarters,  every  two  weeks,  a  physician's 
certificate  of  sound  health.     The  second,  third  and  fourth  classes  in- 

108 


elude,  respectively,  women  of  divers  grades  who  do  not  live  with  one 
but  with  more  than  one  out  of  wedlock.  These  are  all  required  to  re- 
port in  person  at  police  headquarters,  for  medical  inspection,  twice 
each  week,  and  the  city  pays  the  bills. 

The  German  police  system  recognizes  the  fact  that  many  of  these 
women,  being  betrayed  into  indiscretion  by  reason  of  their  youth  and 
their  credulous  faith  in  man,  wish  to  escape  from  the  dowTiward  path 
which  they  see  opening  before  them.  Therefore,  at  each  German  police 
headquarters,  there  is  employed  one  or  more  women,  whose  duty  it  is 
to  hear  and  investigate  all  such  applications  for  help  in  the  effort  to 
return  to  a  respectable  life.  A  girl  who  has  made  the  first  misstep,  and, 
fearing  to  return  to  her  home,  has  .gone  forward  for  a  month  or  several 
montlis,  comes  to  the  matron,  imploring  her  aid  to  get  back  on  the 
right  road.  The  matron  communicates  with  or  visits  the  girl's  parents. 
She  explains  to  them,  out  of  her  wider  knowledge  of  the  pitfalls  of 
life  (if  the  parents  or  either  of  them  proves  obdurate),  their  duty  to 
forgive  and  take  back  their  daughter  and  to  give  her  their  support  in 
her  attempt  to  make  amends.  I  am  told  by  police  officials  that  hun- 
dreds of  young  girls  are  thus  redeemed  from  lives  of  shame  and  ig- 
nominy every  year,  through  the  help  of  the  police  departments. 

In  other  cases,  as  where  a  girl  who  has  erred  determines  to  live  by 
labor,  and  gets  work,  she  is  required  by  the  police  department  to  report 
at  regular  intervals  during  the  three  months  following,  in  order  to 
make  sure  her  reformation  is  lasting.  During  these  three  months  she 
receives  the  aid  and  encouragement  not  only  of  the  police  department 
but  of  a  society,  whicli  under  different  names  does  about  the  same 
service  in  all  German  cities.  At  the  end  of  the  three  months  probation 
she  ceases  to  be  under  observation  and  need  no  longer  report  at  head- 
quarters. 

Again,  a  woman  of  the  underworld  in  a  German  city  is  asked  by  a 
man  to  become  his  wife — this  happens  often  over  here.  The  police 
department  investigates  the  circumstances,  both  of  the  woman  and  of 
the  man.  If  it  appears  that  the  man  is  able  to  support  the  woman, 
the  marriage  is  sanctioned  and  takes  place,  and  the  woman  passes 
from  under  poh'ce  observation.  If,  however,  it  appears  that  the  man 
is  not  able  to  support  the  woman,  or  if  it  appears  that  he  purposes  to 
make  her  support  him  by  continuing  in  a  life  of  prostitution,  the 
marriage  is  forbidden. 

IFcre,  as  elsewhere  in  the  world  (or  sucli  at  least  is  the  deliberate 
judgment  of  police  officials  and  police  nuitrons;  who  should  know  if 
anybody  can  know),  most  of  the  women  of  the  underworld,  and  of  the 
half-world  especially,  are  driven  by  poverty  to  accej)t  the  aid  of  a  num 
or  of  men.  Recognizing  this  as  a  fact,  the  German  police  departments 
in  no  way  molest  a  woman  who  accepts  such  aid,  requiring  only  that 
she  shall  report  at  intervals  for  medical  inspection.  She  is  free  to 
rent  a  room  and  receive  friends  there,  unobtrusively,  without  police 
interference  of  any  kind.  Rut  she  must  not  engage  in  sex  traffic  in 
her  room  ;  for  that  she  must  go  to  a  hotel.  No  quarter  of  any  German 
city  is  set  apart  for,  or  exempted   from,  occupancy  by  such  women. 

109 


The  German  police  do  not  aim  to  limit  their  liberty,  but  only  to  pre- 
vent them,  so  far  as  possible,  from  becoming  mediums  for  the  trans- 
mission of  the  hideous  diseases  which  attend  the  sex  traffic.  They 
recognize,  as  did  Frances  ^Yillard  in  the  last  year  of  her  life,  that  the 
traffic  is  chiefly  economic  in  its  origin,  like  drxmkenness,  due  mainly  to 
poverty  and  poverty's  legitimate  child,  ignorance,  and  they  say  there- 
fore that  society,  tolerating  economic  conditions  which  condemn  thou- 
sands of  the  daughters  of  the  poor  to  sell  their  bodies  for  bread  and 
shelter,  has  already  punished  them  sufficiently,  without  laying  further 
unnecessary  burdens  upon  them. 

WTien  I  asked  a  prominent  German  police  official  if  German  cities 
ever  laid  a  tax  on  prostitution,  or  derived  any  public  revenue  from  it, 
he  was  as  plainly  insulted — and  showed  it  in  his  manner — as  if  I  had 
asked  him  whether  he  as  an  official  had  ever  derived  any  such  revenue 
illegally.  Then  I  told  him  of  the  Western  city  which  in  my  youth  had 
levied  such  a  tax,  by  the  device  of  imposing  fines  upon  the  women  at 
stated  intervals,  and  I  know  he  didn't  believe  me.  The  thing  was 
monstrous  and  incredible  from  his  viewpoint. 

I  have  no  suggestion  to  offer  for  the  guidance  of  our  ovm  city  on 
this  subject.  It  has  been  handled  there  in  the  usual  American  fashion. 
I  remember  that  the  anti-prohibitionist  leaders,  in  the  last  session  of 
the  Texas  legislature,  enacted  a  law,  which  Governor  Colquitt  gladly 
approved,  forbidding  the  sale  or  gift  of  intoxicants  in  houses  devoted  to 
prostitution.  The  idea  was  to  minimize  the  attractiveness  of  such 
places  for  the  young  and  thoughtless  citizens  of  the  male  sex,  and  thus' 
to  reduce  the  patronage  of  such  places.  The  effect  of  that  law  upon 
the  unfortunate  inhabitants  of  the  proscribed  quarter,  the  women,  is 
of  course  to  withhold  from  them  their  only  means  of  procuring  even 
temporary  forgetfulness  of  the  horrors  of  the  hell  into  which  youthful 
folly,  blind  trust  in  man's  honor,  or  poverty  has  plunged  them.  It  is  a 
good  law  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  is  distinctly  a  man's  law — drawn  to 
protect  men,  with  no  thought  for  its  effect  upon  men's  victims. 

This  is  one  of  the  saddest,  most  perplexing  problems  with  which 
municipal  administrators  have  to  contend.  Good  people  generally, 
having  no  official  responsibility,  can  comfortably  forget  it  or  ignore  it 
— and  usually  do  so.  But  it  is  neglected  only  at  society's  peril.  One 
of  the  cleanest,  ablest,  most  vigorous  thinkers  in  Houston,  a  lawyer 
of  high  standing,  said  to  me,  a  day  before  I  set  out  on  this  Journey: 
"The  segregation  of  fallen  women  in  a  special  district,  where  they  are 
cut  off  absolutely  from  any  possible  contact  with  decent  people,  from 
any  refining  or  reforming  influence,  is  a  damnable  outrage  against  the 
laws  of  man  and  God.  I  want  you,  when  you  reach  Europe,  to  learn 
how  the  older  coimtries,  which  have  studied  this  problem  centuries 
longer  than  we,  have  solved  it,  and  I  want  you  to  lay  the  cold  facts 
before  our  people.  I  am  sure  our  Houston  people  want  to  do  what 
is  just  and  right,  but  I  am  equally  sure  our  existing  policy  with  regard 
to  this  problem  is  all  wrong,  and  if  you  find  the  experience  of  the  old 
countries  proves  it  wrong,  I  want  you  to  say  so." 

I  report  the  facts  as  I  find  them. 

110 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

DUSSELDOEF,  '"ThE   SHEFFIELD  OF   GERMANY." 

Dusseldorf,  Germany. — Xothing  that  I  saw  more  forcibly  illustrates 
the  wide  gap  between  the  highly  socialized  industrial  life  of  Germany 
and  the  laxly  socialized  industrial  life  of  the  British  cities,  than  the 
contrast  between  Sheffield,  which  is  often  alluded  to  as  "the  Dusseldorf 
of  England,''  and  Dusseldorf,  which  is  sometimes  called  "the  Shef- 
field of  Germany."  The  cities  are  likened  to  each  other  solely  because 
each  is  the  chief  seat  of  the  iron  and  steel  industry  of  its  country. 

The  German  city  system,  looking  closely  and  carefully  after  the 
welfare  of  the  humblest  citizen;  ministering  to  his  need  not  only  of 
decent  and  economical  housing,  cheap  food  and  ample  cheap  trans- 
portation and  the  other  necessaries  of  life,  but  also  providing  him  with 
an  abundance  of  excellent  and  free  or  low-priced  entertainments  and 
recreation  places,  affords  a  vivid  contrast  in  municipal  house  keeping 
with  the  English  system  as  exemplified  in  Sheffield.  Dusseldorf  is 
throughout  planned  and  governed  hj  its  ablest  men  with  the  primary 
purpose  to  procure  for  all  its  people  the  maximum  of  health,  comfort, 
pleasure  and  civic  beauty,  whereas  in  Sheffield  the  want  of  civic  pride, 
and  of  a  civic  attempt  to  introduce  the  element  of  esthetic  beauty  into 
the  lives  of  the  people  is  conspicuously  wanting.  Dusseldorf  exhibits, 
as  do  in  degree  all  the  other  great  modern  cities  of  Germany,  the 
singular  and  striking  fact  that  the  Germans  are  the  foremost  people  on 
earth  in  solving  to  an  appreciable  degree  the  new  problem  of  feeding, 
housing,  educating,  amusing  and  intelligently  governing  the  vast  army 
of  farm  and  village  folk  who,  during  the  past  half  century,  have 
swarmed  into  the  cities  to  serve  the  complex  machinery  of  modern 
industry. 

Yet  Sheffield,  unspeakably  ugly  as  it  is  for  the  most  part,  and 
especially  in  those  quarters  inhabited  by  the  army  of  its  working 
people  (and  here  is  exhibited,  grim  and  stark,  that  English  genius 
for  efficiency  in  the  conquest  of  material  wealth),  has  the  best  and 
cheapest  street  railway  service  in  Europe — the  fare  to  nearly  all  points 
witbin  the  city  is,  under  the  zone  system,  a  single  penny  American — 
and  the  cheapest  gas,  municipally  supplied  at  35  cents  per  thousand 
cubic;  feet.  The  city  of  Sheffield  lias  made  good  in  operation  of  these 
j)ul)lic  works;  it  has  failed  misera])ly,  contrasted  with  Dusseldorf,  in 
providing  for  its  workers  clean,  healthful,  attractive  housing  and  low- 
priced  entertainments  and  diversions.  How  much  of  tbis  failure  is 
racial  and  temperamental,  due  to  sf)il  and  climatic  environment,  and 

111 


how  nmoli  may  be  due  to  the  Puritanical  traditions  of  the  country,  I 
do  not  undertake  to  say.  Probably  it  is  chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that, 
whereas  in  German  cities  private  profit  is  subordinated  to  the  social 
welfare,  in  Sheffield  as  in  American  cities  private  profit  is  paramount. 
The  merits  of  the  two  systems  are  exhibited  in  their  fruits. 

My  inquiries  addressed  to  the  city  government  brought  to  me  the 
following  reply : 

The  Oberbiirgermeister.  IV  C.  No.  626.  Dusseldorf,  November 
14,  1912.  Mr.  Frank  Putnam,  Special  Commissioner  of  the  City  of 
Houston,  U.  S.  A.,  to  the  Cities  of  Europe. 

Sir :  In  reply  to  your  favor  of  October  4th,  I  beg  to  hand  you  here- 
with municipal  report  for  1911,  as  well  as  the  "Pocketbook  of  the 
Bureau  for  Statistics  of  the  City  of  Dusseldorf,"  which  has  been  just 
issued.    These  booklets  will  be  a  good  help  for  you  in  your  studies. 

Below  please  find  your  questions  answered  in  detail  as  follows : 

1.  Present  population,  390,000  inhabitants. 

2.  The  municipal  budget  for  1912  balances  -wdth  50,775  marks  in 
revenues  and  expenditures. 

3.  As  for  sources  of  municipal  revenues,  see  pocketbook,  pp.  82-90. 

4.  In  regard  to  expenditures  made  from  the  revenues,  see  under 
"Expenses,"  pp.  82-91. 

5.  Debts  amount  to  167,399,087  marks.     See  p.  81  of  pocketbook. 

6.  Bonds  bearing  interest  are  issued ;  security  thereof  is  guaranteed 
by  municipal  property  and  taxes  paid.  The  municipal  administration 
has  to  render  an  account  for  public  loans  to  the  town  council  and  the 
royal  government.  We  think  that,  in  this  connection,  the  book  writ- 
ten by  Dr.  Most,  "Administration  of  Debts  of  German  Cities,"  would 
be  of  great  interest  to  you.    This  book  was  issued  in  Jena,  1909. 

7.  Public  works  are  intrusted  to  contractors  bidding  for  them; 
small  public  works  are  let  without  competitive  bidding.  In  case  of  the 
work  being  important,  the  contractor  has  to  deposit  a  guarantee. 

8.  The  tramways  are  not  owoied  by  the  municipality.  A  street  car 
company  pays  yearly  a  "recognization  fee"  to  the  municipality,  like- 
wise a  fee  for  the  right  of  using  the  streets. 

9.  With  the  exception  of  the  tramway  line  mentioned  above,  all 
public  institutions  are  owned  and  operated  by  the  municipality.  You 
will  find  them  enumerated  on  page  82  under  "Etat  for  independent 
revenue-giving  institutions" ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  port,  the 
concert  hall  and  the  Zoo,  all  of  them  are  sources  of  income  and  work 
with  a  surplus. 

10.  The  Statistical  Pocketbook  gives  you  every  detail  regarding 
each  public  institution ;  above  all.  Dr.  Most's  book,  "Municipal  Insti- 
tutions of  the  City  of  Dusseldorf,"  issued  among  the  books  of  the 
"Corporation  for  Social  Politics,"  Vol.  129,  2nd  part,  Leipzig,  1909, 
will  be  of  use  to  you. 

112 


11.  The  revenues  of  the  city  from  its  public  institutions  are  to  be 
seen  under  XI,  p.  85,  "Eevenues  and  Additional  Supplies  of  the  In- 
dependent Institutions  and  Administrative  Otfices."  In  case  the  in- 
stitutions work  with  a  surplus,  prices  are  sometimes  lowered;  this  has 
been  done  lately  at  the  electric  works  and  the  tramway. 

12.  Eegarding  the  only  one  public  institution  not  owned  by  the 
municipality,  viz :  the  tramway  line,  the  city  participates  with  61  per 
cent  of  the  share  capital;  for  this  reason  the  city  participates  greatly 
in  the  net  gain  of  this  tram. 

13.  As  a  rule,  the  tariff  on  tramway  is  10  pfennigs,  that  is  to  say, 
one  rides  four  kilometers  for  10  pfennigs.  The  price  of  gas  for  light- 
ing, heating  and  cooking  purposes  is  13  pfennigs,  for  power  purposes, 
8  pfennigs  per  cubic  meter.  Electric  current  costs  40  pfennigs  per 
hour  for  lighting  purposes  per  kilowatt  hour;  for  power,  14  pfennigs 
per  kilowatt  hour.  Special  contracts  are  made  with  persons  wanting 
big  quantities. 

14.  Public  buildings  are  erected  by  private  contractors;  the  wages 
they  pay  vary.    Regarding  tax  units,  see  p.  93  of  pocketbook. 

16.  Everything  concerning  the  tax  system  as  a  whole  is  laid  down 
in  the  book  of  Matthias,  "Municipal  Self-Administration  in  Prus- 
sia," Berlin,  1912,  edited  by  Franz  Vahlen. 

17.  The  book  mentioned  above  would  give  j^ou  essential  enlighten- 
ment as  to  Xo.  17  of  your  questions.  The  oljerbiirgermGister  is  ap- 
pointed for  a  term  of  twelve  years,  the  assistants  also ;  municipal 
office  clerks  and  cashiers  for  life.  The  period  of  service  of  the  present 
officials  varies  very  much.    Most  of  them  were  not  born  in  Dusseldorf. 

18.  The  book  of  Matthias  will  enlighten  you  regarding  this  ques- 
tion. 

Hoping  that  these  communications  and  the  books  recommended  will 
be  of  use  to  you  in  your  studies,  Dr.  Most, 

Representative  of  the  Oherhurgermcistcr. 

The  Dusseldorf  Statistical  Pocketbook  for  1912,  and  the  city's  Year- 
book for  1911,  containing  much  additional  historical  and  statistical 
information,  with  a  map  of  the  city  showing  its  ])lan  of  development 
for  industrial  and  residential  sections,  parks,  boulevards,  playgrounds, 
etc.,  have  been  sent  to  the  Houston  Public  Library.  The  volume  re- 
porting, with  numerous  maps,  etc.,  the  city-planning  section  of  the 
international  municipal  congress  held  in  Dusseldorf  in  Se])tember, 
1912,  where  Houston  was  the  only  American  city  officially  repre- 
sented, lias  also  been  placed  on  file  in  the  Houston  Public  Tiibrary,  and 
the  full  re[)ort  of  the  proceedings  (if  that  congress  will  soon  he  re- 
ceived by  the  library. 


113 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Berlin',  the  City  Magxificext. 

Berlin,  German}'. — Kaiser  Wilhelm,  coming  to  the  German  throne, 
is  said  to  have  declared  his  purpose  to  make  his  capital,  Berlin,  the 
most  beautiful  city  in  Europe.  Wanting  the  help  of  nature,  he  has 
not  succeeded  in  doing  that,  because  it  was  impossible  to  make  a  city 
standing  where  Berlin  stands  equal  in  beauty  to  some  other  European 
cities  more  favorably  located ;  but  Berlin,  in  the  opinion  of  some  trav- 
elers, is  by  far  the  most  attractive  of  all  the  large  cities  of  Europe. 

Its  wide,  perfectly  paved  and  perfectly  kept  streets,  its  spacious  and 
charming  public  parks,  its  freedom  from  overshadowing  skyscrapers 
that  mar  the  skyline  and  shut  out  the  sunlight  in  American  cities,  and 
its  nobly  beautiful  churches,  public  buildings  and  monuments,  make 
Berlin  the  !Mecca  each  year  of  a  larger  number  of  students  and  pleasure 
seekers.  It  is  predicted  that  within  a  few  years  Berlin  will  have  taken 
Paris'  place,  so  long  held,  as  the  "capital  of  Europe.'" 

I  found  the  asphalt  streets  of  Paris  marred  by  many  ruts  and  gaps, 
badly  repaired  and  dirty.  In  one  Paris  street  I  saw  city  workmen 
repairing  a  wooden  pavement  with  uncreosoted  blocks.  In  Berlin  the 
streets  are  kept  as  clean  as  a  parlor  floor.  I  saw  Berlin,  Paris,  London 
and  Xew  York,  the  four  great  cities  of  the  Western  world,  all  within 
twenty  days.  In  each  city  my  attention  was  directed  by  chance  to  work 
done  by  city  employes  in  laying  or  repairing  paving.  In  the  Strand, 
London,  I  found  city  workmen  j)atching  the  wood  block  pavement. 
They  told  me  the  wood  block  in  the  Strand  had  been  in  service  over  a 
dozen  years.  It  is  still  in  excellent  condition,  although  one  of  the 
most  traveled  streets  in  the  world.  The  foreman  of  the  gang  told  me 
that  in  the  early  wood  block  construction  it  was  the  custom  to  lay  the 
blocks  down  with  a  slight  space  between  them,  to  allow  for  expansion 
during  wet  weather.  lie  said  experience  had  proved  this  system 
faulty,  since  the  blocks  when  so  laid  tend  to  wear  round  at  the  surface 
and  become  col)l)ly.  In  the  new  construction,  he  said — and  I  found  the 
same  principle  oljserved  in  laying  wood  block  paving  in  Monroe  street, 
Chicago,  three  or  four  years  ago — the  rule  is  to  lay  the  blocks  snugly 
against  each  other,  give  them  a  tbin  coating  of  liquid  asphaltum,  then 
sprinkle  with  sharp  sand.  The  London  highway  authorities  esteem  a 
pavement  of  this  kind  the  best  that  human  ingenuity  can  produce,  but 
they  tell  me  it  costs  more,  when  properly  made,  than  any  other.  The 
Lonflon  municipalities,  or  most  of  them,  operate  their  own  creosoting 
plants  and  prepare  the  blocks.    The  blocks  I  saw  laid  down  were  five 

115 


inches  high,  and  wore  placed  on  a  foundation  of  concrete  eight  inches 
thick  at  the  curb  and  twelve  inches  thick  at  the  crown  of  the  street. 
An  inch  of  space  was  allowed  at  the  curb  for  expansion.  In  New  York 
I  saw  city  workmen  taking  up  asphalt,  which  had  been  laid  down  years 
ago  without  any  concrete  foundation,  and  replacing  it  with  creosoted 
wood  blocks.  The  foreman  of  the  work  told  me  the  city  had  recently 
laid  down  a  great  many  miles  of  wood  block  paving;  that,  notwithstand- 
ing its  larger  cost,  it  was  believed  to  give  most  for  the  money  in  the 
long  run,  when  built  right.  He  said  the  city  was  "experimenting" 
with  a  short  street  paved  with  uncreosoted  wood  block,  which  sug- 
gested the  possibility  that  New  York  may  yet  "experiment"  with 
thatched  roofs  to  reduce  the  fire  hazard.  Incomparably  the  best  built, 
smoothest,  best  kept  and  cleanest  streets  in  the  four  great  cities  are  the 
streets  of  Berlin.  London  and  New  York  still  retain — and  even  from 
time  to  time  lay  do^vn  anew — considerable  stretches  of  the  vehicle,  hoof 
and  human  nerve  destroying  cobble  stone  pavement.  Berlin's  streets 
were  laid  down  by  men  who  were  aware  that  motor-driven  vehicles  are 
to  predominate  in  street  traffic  of  paved  cities  now  and  hereafter. 

Transportation  in  Berlin  is  plentiful,  cheap  and  excellent  in  kind. 
Street  cars  and  underground  electric  cars  are  swift  and  clean  and  fares 
are  lower  than  in  any  American  city,  not  even  excepting  "three-cent 
Cleveland."  Y^our  taxicab,  equipped  with  all  the  latest  devices  for 
personal  comfort,  costs  you  15  cents  for  the  first  mile,  10  cents  each 
subsequent  mile ;  if  taken  by  the  hour,  it  can  be  used  all  afternoon  for 
approximately  $3.  Compare  this  with  the  outrageous  charges  ex- 
acted by  taxi  companies  in  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  with  the  $3 
per  hour  charge  made  for  the  use  of  old  and  untidy  rent  motors  in 
Houston,  and  you'll  understand  why  the  noiseless,  manureless,  flyless 
and  runawayless  taxicab  has  virtually  put  horse-drawn  vehicles  out  of 
business  in  Berlin.  Even  a  man  who  loves  horses — and  it  is  my  private 
opinion  the  Almighty  never  made  anything  handsomer  than  a  high- 
spirited  thoroughbred — has  to  admit  that  in  our  motor-driven  age  the 
continuance  of  any  kind  of  domestic  animals  in  crowded  cities  is  a  sur- 
vival of  ancient  habit,  a  source  of  uncleanliness  and  a  menace  to 
human  health. 

The  average  tax  borne  by  each  man,  woman  and  child  in  Berlin  is 
about  $25  a  year,  which  is  more  than  the  average  of  direct  taxes  paid 
per  capita  in  Houston.  Considering  that  per  capita  income  is  easily 
twice  as  large  in  Houston  as  in  Berlin,  it  can  be  understood  that  the 
German  citizen,  and  especially  the  German  workingman,  speaks  truth 
when  he  complains  that  he  is  heavily  taxed.  He  is  indeed  taxed  almost 
if  not  quite  twice  as  heavily  as  his  American  cousin. 

The  principal  difference  between  the  American  and  German  tax  sys- 
tems, says  Consul  General  Thacher,  is  that  in  the  United  States  an 
estimate  is  made  of  the  necessary  municipal  expenditures  for  the  en- 
suing year,  and  the  tax  rate  on  taxable  property  both  real  and  personal 
is  fixed  accordingly.  In  Germany,  an  estimate  for  this  purpose  is  not 
made  in  advance,  but  the  rates  of  the  various  taxes  from  which  mu- 
nicipalities derive  their  income  are  fixed  by  law. 

116 


The  state  income  tax  is  based  upon  the  taxable  capacity  of  the  in- 
dividual according  to  his  income  out  of  real  and  personal  property. 
The  municipal  income  tax  is  a  certain  percentage  of  the  above  tax, 
ranging  from  90  to  250  per  cent.  In  Frankfort-on-Main,  for  instance, 
the  percentage  is  90,  in  Berlin  it  is  100  per  cent,  while  in  some  of  the 
smaller  cities  which  are  under  unusual  expense  owing  to  the  large  im- 
provements which  have  been  made  to  keep  pace  with  their  rapid  de- 
velopment, the  percentage  is  250,  which  is  the  case  in  Spandau. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  when  the  German  cities  have  paid 
off  their  bonded  indebtedness  incurred  to  buy  or  build  revenue- 
producing  public  utilities,  the  surplus  earnings  from  these  utilities 
will  not,  as  now,  be  used  in  large  part  to  pay  interest  and  principal  on 
this  bonded  debt,  but  will  become  so  much  clear  profit  for  the  munici- 
pality. In  that  day,  which  is  not  more  than  forty  or  fifty  years  dis- 
tant, the  cities  can  either  absorb  these  surplus  earnings  in  extensions 
and  improvements  of  the  public  services,  or  by  reducing  charges  for 
these  services,  or  can  employ  the  surplus  in  acquiring  or  creating  addi- 
tional public  services.  It  seems  to  me  likely  the  last  suggested  course 
is  most  likely  to  be  adopted,  since  the  march  of  invention  and  the  con- 
stant multiplication  of  human  needs  in  cities  creates  ever  new  demands 
upon  municipal  revenue. 

To  become  the  mayor  of  a  city  like  Berlin,  says  our  consul  general, 
the  applicant  must  have  established  his  reputation  for  efficiency  by 
successfully  governing  another  or  other  German  cities.  His  career  is 
carefully  scrutinized  by  the  members  of  the  town  council  who  select 
him,  for  not  only  must  he  be  competent  but  must  be  still  so  young  as 
likely  to  remain  competent  for  many  years,  for  a  mayor  in  Prussia  is 
elected  for  a  term  of  twelve  years,  and  if  not  re-elected  is  entitled  to  a 
life  pension  of  half  the  amount  of  his  salary.  After  a  service  of  six 
years  his  pension  is  one-fourth  of  his  salary,  and  after  serving  twenty 
years,  two-thirds.  He  may  not  necessarily  be  a  resident  of  Berlin  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment ;  in  fact,  the  mayor  is  usually  chosen  from 
another  city.  He  is  elected  by  the  town  council,  subject  to  confirmation 
by  the  king  of  Prussia.  When  it  becomes  known  that  the  office  of 
mayor  is  to  become  vacant,  applications  for  the  position  are  considered 
by  a  committee  of  the  town  council,  and  if  municipal  officers  have  made 
especially  good  records  in  other  cities,  they  are  requested  to  apply,  if 
they  have  not  already  done  so.  After  a  thorough  discussion  of  the 
merits  of  the  applicants,  a  selection  is  made.  In  the  administration  of 
the  City  of  Berlin  tliere  are  two  mayors,  the  oberbiirgermeister  or  chief 
mayor,  and  tlie  Ijiirgermeister  or  mayor.  The  method  of  election  is  the 
same  for  l)otli.  Tlic  town  council  also  elects  the  other  members  of  the 
administration  (iiiagistrat),  which  with  the  two  mayors  includes  thirty- 
six  members,  sixteen  of  whom  are  paid  and  twenty  are  honorary  offi- 
cials. The  election  of  all  the  members  except  the  two  mayors  must 
be  confirmcfl  by  the  governor  of  the  Province  of  Brandenburg. 

The  members  of  the  town  councils  are  elected  by  the  taxpayers.  The 
latter  are  divided  into  three  classes,  according  to  the  amount  of  taxes 
each  pays.     Each  class  selects  one-third  of  the  town  councillors;  thus 

117 


the  small  number  of  large  taxpayers  select  as  many  councillors  as  the 
much  larger  group  of  medium  taxpayers  and  as  many  as  the  very 
much  larger  group  of  small  taxpayers.  It  is  esteemed  a  high  honor  to 
be  chosen  a  councillor,  and  no  salary  is  paid  members  of  the  council. 
If  a  citizen  being  elected  to  the  council,  fails  to  qualify,  he  is  subject 
to  a  fine. 

In  addition  to  the  town  council  of  Berlin  there  are  about  ninety 
"citizen  deputies"  chosen  by  the  council  from  among  the  most  distin- 
guished citizens  to  serve  as  advisory  members  of  council  committees 
charged  wdth  supervision  of  various  municipal  interests,  such  as  parks, 
schools,  the  care  of  the  poor,  etc. 

The  heads  of  the  city  departments  are  appointed  by  the  chief  mayor. 

There  is  not  much  political  democracy  in  the  system  as  above  out- 
lined. It  is  government  by  highly  trained  specialists  in  government, 
the  few,  and  is  tolerable  only  because  it  produces  better  results,  for 
the  general  welfare,  than  our  democratic  system  has  yet  produced  in 
any  American  city.  The  "sovereign  citizen"  of  America  pays  for  his 
pofitical  sovereignty  by  holding  administrative  efficiency  down  to  the 
level  of  the  mass  intelligence — or  more  often  the  mass  indifference. 

The  German  masses  strive  continually  for  larger  political  privileges, 
believing  they  can  use  these  privileges  to  obtain  higher  wages  and 
larger  social  insurance  guaranties — against  sickness,  unemployment, 
accidental  injury  or  death  and  old  age.  They  may  err  in  believing  the 
democratic  rule  of  the  masses  would  procure  these  benefits,  but  it  is  a 
fact  that  their  pressure  for  such  rule  brings  them  constantly  larger 
measures  of  these  benefits  granted  by  the  ruling  minority. 


118 


CHAPTEK  XXI. 

Latest  Official  Data  ox  Berlin. 

Latest  official  data  on  the  City  of  Berlin  is  given  in  the  following 
letter  from  the  city  government : 

Berlin,  December  19,  1913. 
Mr.  Frank  Putnam,  Special  Commissioner  of  the  City  of  Houston, 

Texas,  U.  S.  A. 

Dear  Sir :    The  propounded  questions  we  answer  as  follows : 

No.  1.  The  population  of  Berlin,  November  1,  1912,  was  2,090,715  ; 
at  the  last  official  census,  on  December  1,  1910,  Berlin  had  2,051,297 
inhabitants. 

Xo.  2.  The  gross  revenue  of  the  city  for  1911  was  363,120,789 
marks  (over  $90,000,000). 

Xos.  3  and  4.  The  enclosed  general  report  of  the  city's  budget  for 
1911  gives  full  information  on  this  question.  The  city  derives  its 
greatest  income  from  taxes,  to  the  amount  of  95,308,169.83  marks 
(about  $22,700,000).  The  very  exhaustive  reports  dealing  with  all 
funds  received  and  disbursed  by  the  city  exchequer  shows  that  all  reve- 
nues of  the  different  city  departments  exceeded  all  disbursements  to 
the  amount  of  7,705,272.91  marks  during  the  fiscal  year  1911. 

Xo.  5.  The  bonded  del)t  of  the  City  of  Berlin  at  the  close  of  the  fiscal 
year  1911  was  481,393,455  marks  ($114,617,549). 

Xo.  6.  From  the  enclosed  report  of  the  loans  made  by  the  City  of 
Berlin  the  purpose  and  amount  of  each  loan  can  be  seen.  The  entire 
assets  of  the  city  and  its  taxing  power  serve  as  security  for  these  loans. 
Each  loan  is  authorized  by  the  secretaries  of  the  interior  and  the  treas- 
ury, after  having  received  royal  sanction. 

Each  loan  contains  a  sinking  fund  chiuse,  stipulating  the  amount 
that  must  be  paid  off  annually.  A  full  report  of  these  transactions' 
has  to  be  submitted  to  the  City  Council  annually. 

No.  7.  The  street  and  bridge  commission  is  authorized  to  make 
contract  and  purchase  material  to  the  amount  of  3000  marks  ($715), 
freehanded,  under  the  general  condition  established  for  this  purpose. 
It  is  loft  to  the  discretion  of  this  commission  to  call  for  bids  from 
several  contractors,  or  not,  and  to  accept  any  of  the  submitted  bids, 
according  to  its  own  judgment. 

All  other  contracts  and  purchases,  exceeding  30()()  marks,  must  be 
made  by  public  bids  under  the  specified  ordinances  issued  for  this'  pur- 
pose. We  enclose  the  conditions  for  making  bids  (beitungs  bedingun- 
gen) ;  the  general  contract  conditions  (allgemeine  vertragsbedingun), 

119 


and  special  regulations  (besondere  bedingungen).  Before  a  con- 
tract is  awarded  to  any  firm,  the  ability,  capacity  and  general  worth 
of  that  lirm  is  carefully  examined,  and  the  successful  bidder  must 
guarantee  his  work  by  depositing  a  valid  bond  of  sufficient  amount  to 
indemnify  the  city  against  any  loss  from  non-fulfillment  of  the  con- 
tract conditions.  It  will  suffice  to  state  that  the  conditions  and  regula- 
tions are  prepared  with  the  utmost  care  and  protect  the  city's  interest 
in  every  respect. 

No.  8.  The  occupying  and  the  use  of  streets,  bridges  and  public 
squares  is  granted  to  the  postal  department  of  the  German  Empire  to 
a  certain  extent  by  the  telegraph  road  law.  Besides  this  the  use  of 
public  streets  is  granted  to  the  tramways,  electric  cars  and  underground 
railway  by  the  railroad  law  of  July  28,  1892.  In  every  instance  the 
use  of  public  streets  and  thoroughfares  by  private  corporations  is  regu- 
lated by  special  contract,  that  binds  the  corporation  to  pay  a  certain 
annual  sum  to  the  city,  besides  the  keeping  in  full  repair  of  that  part 
of  the  streets  used  by  said  corporation. 

Regarding  the  granting  of  the  use  of  streets,  bridges  and  public 
squares  to  gas  companies,  we  refer  to  the  enclosed  pamphlet  No.  34. 
This  pamphlet  contains  a  contract  entered  into  by  the  municipality  of 
Berlin  and  the  Imperial  Continental  Gas  Company  in  1901,  for  a 
term  of  twenty-four  years,  in  which  the  territory  of  Berlin  was  di- 
vided for  the  supply  of  gas  for  public,  private  and  commercial  use  be- 
tween the  municipal  gas  works  and  the  Imperial  Continental  Gas 
Company.  The  latter  agreed  to  pay  the  City  of  Berlin  an  annual  rental 
for  the  use  of  the  streets  that  amounted  for  the  first  year  of  the  con- 
tract to  477,541.37  marks,  or  approximately  $100,000.  Every  three 
years  during  the  life  of  the  contract  this  rent  is  readjusted  to  conform 
with  the  increased  volume  of  gas  supplied  by  the  Imperial  Continental 
Gas  Company. 

No.  9.     Municipal  works  : 

Establishment —  Receipts.              Expenditures. 

Gas  works 87,563,399.59  M.  78,954,834.98  M. 

Water  works    18,414,913.76  M.  15,316,930.60  M. 

Canalization  and  farms 24,712,257.60  M.  26,248,826.20  M. 

Cattle  market    3,855,184.39  M.       3,160,441.59  M. 

Abattoirs    2,961,958.25  M.       2,558,421.60  M. 

Meat  inspection 8,845,973.94  M.       7,343,441.16  M. 

Market  halls    4,357,561.26  M.       3,872,166.42  M. 

Street  railroads   2,629,961.80  M.       1,987,146.49  M. 

Public  warehouse    134,694.61  M.            86,629.56  M. 

Construction  of  East  harbor.  .  .  .  2,361,426.10  M.       3,159,579.71  M. 

Total     156,067,326.37  M.  142,685,418.19  M. 

This  shows  that  the  City  of  Berlin  derived  annual  net  revenue  of 
13,500,000  marks,  or  more  than  $3,000,000,  from  the  different  public 
works  or  utilities  which  it  o^\Tied  and  operated  in  1912. 

120 


No.  10.  The  municipal  water  works  were  bought  on  July  1,  1873, 
for  25,125,000  marks  ($6,000,000),  from  an  English  association.  The 
loan  floated  for  the  purchase  has  been  repaid  several  years  ago  from 
the  profits  derived  from  the  operation  of  the  works. 

The  street  railroads  were  owned  and  operated  exclusively  by  private 
concerns  to  the  year  1908.  Since  July  1,  1908,  the  municipality  con- 
ducts street  car  lines  built  by  the  city.  (These,  of  course,  are  in  addi- 
tion to  the  main  service,  wliich  is  still  in  the  hands  of  a  private  com- 
pany.) 

No.  11.  The  yearly  gross  receipts  obtained  from  the  different 
branches  of  public  service  are  shown  in  Chapter  II  of  the  enclosed 
report  (enumerated  above).  The  profits  are  almost  entirely  used  for 
the  general  welfare  of  the  community.  A  reduction  in  charges  does  not 
take  place. 

No.  12.  The  Berlin  electric  works  (privately  owned),  have  to  pay  to 
the  city  10  per  cent  of  their  annual  gross  receipts  and  50  per  cent  of 
their  net  profit,  for  the  franchise  of  laying  cables  under  the  streets. 
From  this  source  the  municipality  received  6,369,807.25  marks  ($1,- 
516,621),  in  1911.  The  street  railway  company  is  also  required  to  pay 
the  city  for  permission  to  lay  tracks  along  the  streets.  The  street  rail- 
way companies  paid  into  the  city  treasury  4,296,996.72  marks  ($1,025,- 
416),  in  1911. 

No.  13.  For  each  uninterrupted  ride  on  the  street  cars  10  pfennigs 
(2^/^  cents)  is  charged.  The  street  railway  companies  also  sell:  (a) 
monthly  cards,  at  6.70  marks  ($1.30)  per  month;  (b)  pupils'  cards, 
at  3  marks  (72  cents),  per  month;  (c)  weekly  cards,  for  mechanics  and 
laborers,  at  50  pfennigs  (12  cents),  and  1  mark  (24  cents),  good  for 
one  or  two  trips  daily  during  the  week;  (d)  police  cards,  at  2.05  marks 
(50  cents),  and  3.10  marks  (75  cents),  per  month  to  policemen  in 
uniform,  and  detectives.  For  taking  a  dog  in  cars  the  passenger  must 
pay  full  fare,  25/2  cents. 

The  price  of  gas  at  present  is  .13  mark  (3  cents)  for  one  cubic  meter, 
on  which  price  a  rebate  of  5  per  cent  is  granted.  For  gas  used  for 
business  purposes  other  than  for  illuminating,  the  following  rebates 
are  granted:  Gas  used  in  industrial  establishments,  50,000  to  100,000 
cubic  meters  yearly,  10  per  cent;  100,000  to  150,000  cubic  meters  yearly, 
12  per  cent;  150,000  to  200,000  cubic  meters  yearly,  14  per  cent; 
200,000  to  250,000  cubic  meters  yearly,  16  per  cent;  25(),000  to  300,000 
cubic  meters  yearly,  18  per  cent;  300,000  cubic  meters  yearly  and  up- 
ward, 20  per  cent.  Kebates  are  not  granted  for  a  shorter  ])erio(l  than 
one  year.  On  gas  used  for  gas  motors  and  central  heating  eslablisli- 
ments  in  dwelling  houses  a  rebate  of  20  per  cent  is  granted,  irrespective 
of  the  amount  used. 

The  price  for  electricity  varies,  according  to  whether  the  current  is 
used  for  ilhiminating  or  power  purposes.  Electric  current  is  charged 
for  by  the  kilowatt  hour,  i.  e.,  the  use  of  1000  volt-amperes  jier  hour. 
The  l)asic  price;  for  electric  power  for  ilhiminaling  piirjjoses  at  present 
is  40  ])f('nnigH  (10  cents)  per  kilowatt  hour.  Cliangcs  of  price  are 
niad(;  with  the  consent  of  the  City  Council  and  become  elTective  one 

121 


month  after  having  been  published  in  at  least  six  newspapers  of  Berlin. 
Customers  who  use  annually  electricity  in  excess  of  10,000  marks 
($2,500)  are  entitled  to  the  following  rebates:  With  a  yearly  use  of 
10,000  marks,  5  per  cent;  20,000  marks,  73/^  per  cent;  30,000  marks, 
10  per  cent;  40,000  marks,  12>4  per  cent;  50,000  marks,  15  per  cent; 
75,000  marks,  17>^  per  cent;  100,000  marks,  20  per  cent.  With  each 
25,000  marks  above  100,000,  the  rebate  increases  2^  per  cent  until 
the  highest  rebate  of  50  per  cent  is  reached.  Persons  or  firms  that  take 
electricity  for  at  least  500  marks  ($120)  yearly  during  the  hours  of 
10  p.  m.  to  7  a.  m.,  pay  only  18  pfennigs  (4  cents)  per  kilowatt  hour. 
Special  prices  are  also  given  for  the  use  of  electricity  for  advertising, 
the  lighting  of  house  numbers,  stairs,  cellars  and  accumulators. 

For  industrial  purposes  the  price  of  electricity  at  present  is  6  pfen- 
nigs per  kilowatt  hour.  The  Berlin  electric  works  decide  whether  the 
power  is  used  for  industrial  or  illuminating  purposes.  With  the  use  of 
electricity  for  2000  hours  per  annum  the  price  is  15  pfennigs  per  kilo- 
watt hour;  between  2000  and  2200  hours,  13.5  pfennigs;  2250  to  2500 
hours,  12.75  pfennigs;  2500  to  3000  hours,  12  pfennigs;  3000  to  3500 
hours,  11.25  pfennigs;  3500  to  4000  hours,  10.75  pfennigs;  3500  to 
4000  hours,  10  pfennigs.  These  prices  are  subject  to  a  rebate  of  25 
per  cent. 

No.  14.  As  the  public  buildings  of  Berlin  are  not  erected  by  the 
municipality,  no  workmen  or  mechanics  are  employed  in  this  branch 
by  the  city.  For  the  planning  and  drafting,  technical  and  financial 
supervision  of  public  buildings,  officials  are  employed  either  for  life,  or, 
in  the  lower  grades,  from  month  to  month. 

The  higher  officials  receive  a  salary  varying  between  5400  and  9000 
marks  ($1300  to  $2200)  ;  the  lower  officials,  2800  to  6200  marks  ($800 
to  $1500).  The  assistant  technical  officials,  engaged  from  month  to 
month,  receive  a  monthly  salary  of  160  to  400  marks  ($40  to  $100). 

Xo.  15.  A  mimicipal  income  tax  is  levied  in  addition  to  the  normal 
state  income  tax,  in  accordance  with  the  communal  tax  law  (kommun- 
alal)gabengesetz)  of  July  4,  1893.  The  percentage  of  the  tax  levy  to 
the  state  income  tax  is  fixed  annually  by  the  City  Council.  We  enclose 
copy  of  the  income  tax  tariff.  We  quote  the  following  items  from  this 
tariff,  that  give  in  detail  the  tax  levied  on  incomes'  from  900  to  255,000 
marks  yearly : 

Income —  State  Income  Tax.  Municipal  Inc.  Tax.  Per  Ct. 

900  to       1,050  M 6M.  

1,050  to       1,200  M 9M.  

1,200  to       1,350  M 12  M.  .60  M.  5 

1,350  to       1,500  M 16  M.  .80  M.  5 

1,500  to       1,650  M 21  M.  LOOM.  5 

3,000  to       3,300  M 60  M.  6.00  M.  10 

10,500  to     11,500  M 330  M.  49.40  M.  15 

20,500  to     21,500  M 630  M.  126.00  M.  20 

100,000  to  105,000  M 4,000  M.  1,000.00  M.  25 

200,000  to  205,000  :M 8,000  M.  2,000.00  M.  25 

250,000  to  255,000  M 10,000  M.  2,500.00  M.  25 

122 


Each  additional  5000  marks  of  income  paj'S  an  additional  state  tax  of 
200  marks  ($50),  and  an  additional  municipal  tax  of  50  marks 
($12.50). 

No.  16.  The  rates  of  the  income  tax  tariff  apply  to  individuals  and 
corporations  alike  and  treat  equally  the  rich  and  the  poor.  On  all 
personal  estates  the  state  collects  a  special  tax,  while  the  municipality 
levies  a  tax  on  estates  equal  to  25  per  cent  of  the  state  tax.    Thus: 

Estate—  State  Tax.       Municipal  Tax. 

5,000  to  8,000  M 3.20  M.  .80  M. 

100,000  to  1,000,000  M 526.00  M.  131.40  M. 

For  each  additional  2000  marks  of  the  estate  the  state  tax  is  raised 
10.60  marks  and  the  municipal  tax  2.60  marks. 

Real  estate  in  the  city  pays  a  land  tax  based  on  its  actual  value.  The 
tax  rate  for  the  year  1912  is  3.10  marks  for  each  1000  marks  of  property 
value — approximately  78  cents  on  $238. 

Besides  this,  the  new  acquisition  of  real  estate  is  taxed  at  1  per  cent 
for  improved  property  and  3  per  cent  for  unimproved  property,  as  a 
sales  tax  (umsatzsteuer).  Finally,  from  every  sale  of  real  estate  a  tax 
on  the  unearned  increment,  according  to  the  law  of  February  2-1,  1911, 
is  levied.  From  this  tax  the  City  of  Berlin  receives  45  per  cent,  the 
remaining  55  per  cent  going  to  the  State  of  Prussia  and  the  national 
treasury  of  the  German  Empire. 

No.  17.  The  chief  mayor  (oberbuergermeister)  is  elected  for  a 
term  of  twelve  years.  The  present  chief  mayor.  His  Excellency  Wer- 
muth,  comes  from  Hanover,  and  holds  his  office  since  September  1, 
1912. 

The  office  of  city  secretary,  as  an  assistant  to  the  mayor,  does  not 
exist  in  Berlin  or  any  other  Prussian  city.  There  are  several  hundred 
city  secretaries  employed  by  the  municipality,  who  belong  to  the  offi- 
cials of  the  medium  class  and  act  as  clerks  or  bookkeepers  in  the  differ- 
ent departments  of  the  city  administration. 

The  chief  ma3'or  with  several  salaried  (unbesoldete)  councilmen 
(stadraethe),  including  some  technical  advisors,  compose  the  magis- 
trat,  or  executive  council,  of  the  city  government. 

Xo.  18.  All  technical  departments  are  controlled  exclusively  by 
expert  officials,  the  higher  officers  in  the  building  and  administrative 
departments  must  have  a  university  education,  while  a  college  (gym- 
nasium) education  is  sufficient  for  the  medium  officers.  No  other 
special  training  is  required  for  entering  the  municipal  administrative 
service,  but  documentary  proof  must  be  furnished  that  the  candidates 
have  successfully  finished  the  course  of  studies  of  a  college  (gymnasium 
or  realschule),  or  are  university  graduates  of  jurisprudence  and  have 
passed  the  two  state  examinations  of  "referendar''  and  "assessor." 

(Signed)  Rkidlkh. 


123 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Humanity  Moving  to  Town. 

The  foregoing  considerations  bring  us  back  once  inore  to  the  chief 
lesson  that  is  to  be  learned  from  even  a  brief  study  of  human  experi- 
ence in  city-building  and  city-dwelling,  namely,  a  low  tax  rate  means 
a  low  standard  of  civilization;  a  high  tax  rate,  a  high  standard  of 
civilization.  The  advantages  which  modern  cities  give  their  citizens 
over  the  inhabitants  of  our  old-fashioned  villages,  are  speedier  trans- 
portation; a  wider  range  of  entertainment;  far  more  numerous  con- 
tacts with  the  life  of  the  outer  world  and  a  consequent  quickening  of 
intellect;  a  more  diversified  food  supply;  more  numerous  relations  of 
the  beauty  which  genius  calls  forth  from  marble,  color  on  canvas, 
landscape  and  water  vista,  and  the  spirit-stirring  strains  of  noble 
music.  The  shallow  observer  of  modern  life  errs  when  he  says  youth 
leaves  the  farm  for  the  city  solely  in  order  to  get  more  and  better  and 
easier  bread  and  raiment  at  lower  cost  in  labor;  the  deeper  lure  of  the 
cities  is  their  appeal  to  the  young  to  come  and  be  entertained,  amused, 
diverted,  educated ;  and  the  young  go  thence,  subconsciously  aware  that 
their  hunger  for  increasing  mental  and  spiritual  sensibility,  which  the 
cities  alone  can  satisfy,  somehow  involves  the  forward,  upward  move- 
ment of  humanity,  which  it  undoubtedly  does. 

For  perfectly  valid  reasons,  mankind  is  moving  to  town.  Lest  worse 
befall,  our  towns  must  as  speedily  as  possible  be  made  clean,  healthful, 
beautiful,  in  order  to  fulfill  their  function.  Their  citizens  must  have 
the  maximum  of  all  social  services  at  minimum  cost.  Old-world  ex- 
perience proves  this  can  be  obtained  only  by  eliminating  private  profit 
from  all  social  services. 

Since  the  fortunes  of  city  and  country  dwellers  are  linked  together, 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  set  down  a  conclusion  concerning  the 
latter.  I  am  convinced  that  precisely  as  all  city  wealth-producing 
occupations  have  been  organized  on  large  scale,  corporate  ownership 
superseding  small  individual  ownership,  so  in  the  country  corporate 
production  of  food  and  of  the  raw  materials  of  manufacture  will  super- 
sede production  by  small  individual  landholders.  The  rising  demand  of 
a  rapidly  increasing  population  requires  the  change,  and  it  will  there- 
fore be  made.  Fifty  years  ago  a  white  tenant  farmer  in  Texas,  or  Iowa, 
was  almost  unknown.  Today  almost  if  not  quite  one-half  of  the  white 
farm  families  of  Texas — nearly  a  (|nartor-million  of  them — arc  home- 
less and  landless  tenants,  and  only  ^2  per  cent  of  the  farms  of  Texas 
are  operated  by  their  owners.    Approximately  the  same  conditions  exist 

125 


in  Iowa.  It  is  probably  idle  to  advance  any  scheme  to  restore  these 
dispossessed  farmers  to  land  ownership ;  most  of  them  would  fail  agaia, 
as  they  have  already  failed,  if  given  opportunity  to  compete  once  more. 
Since  they  could  not  compete  in  in  era  of  small  tools,  used  by  their 
owTiers,  how  shall  they  compete  in  the  new  era  of  huge  labor-saving 
and  product-multiplying  farm  machines,  in  cost  quite  beyond  their 
reach?  Is  it  not  inevitable  that  this  vast  army  of  farm  tenants  must 
become  the  wage  employes  of  farm  companies,  using  the  new  machines 
on  large  areas,  employing  trained  soil  and  crop  experts  to  direct  opera- 
tions, and  using  the  quarter-million  of  unskilled  farm  laborers  to 
produce  a  far  larger  food  supply,  at  much  less  cost,  than  these  laborers 
in  their  present  role  of  wandering  tenants  are  now  able  to  produce  ? 

The  thoughtful  student  of  modern  city  life,  if  he  be  also  acquainted 
with  conditions  and  tendencies  in  the  rural  regions,  is  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  humanity,  each  year  in  larger  numbers  harnessed  to 
labor-saving  and  product-multiplying  machinery,  is  moving  en  masse 
out  of  the  old  isolation  into  community  life.  The  machine  cotton 
picker  and  the  machine  corn  husker  and  the  motor-driven  machine 
which  plows  thirty  or  forty  furrows  abreast,  at  the  same  time  harrow- 
ing and  leveling  the  soil — these  and  other  huge  new  machines  applica- 
ble to  farm  labor,  and  economically  usable  only  on  large  areas,  indicate 
unerringly  the  way  the  race  is  going.  The  masses  of  tenant  farmers, 
who  now  wander  from  place  to  place,  with  their  families,  will  become 
fixed  residents',  decently  housed  and  provided  with  the  sanitary,  educa- 
tional and  entertainment  resources  of  modern  community  life,  on 
great  farms  owned  and  operated,  for  a  time  at  least,  by  incorporated 
companies  of  capitalists.  Eising  general  intelligence  may  in  time 
evolve  co-operative  communities  of  farm  workers.  This  has  been  ac- 
complished, with,  marked  success,  in  portions  of  Italy,  on  leased  lands. 

Man's  ineradicable  himger  for  land  and  home  ownership  will  per- 
haps be  satisfied  under  the  new  order  by  making  it  possible  for  each 
family  to  acquire  title  to  the  home  it  occupies  and  an  acre  or  more  of 
ground  upon  which  the  home  stands.  He  will  be  compensated  for 
hia  lost  vision  of  estate  ownership  by  the  advantages  of  community 
life  organized  in  conformity  with  the  modern  spirit. 

Xothiag,  in  my  opinion,  short  of  this  method  of  carrying  the  decen- 
cies, the  conveniences,  the  social  and  educational  advantages  of  the  city 
to  the  country,  will  avail  to  check  the  too  rapid  rush  of  farm  and  small 
village  people  to  the  already  overcrowded  cities.  City  dwellers  who 
may  think  a  discussion  of  farm  conditions  out  of  place  in  a  report  on 
city  conditions  are  reminded  that  their  own  welfare,  and  especially  the 
welfare  of  the  laboring  masses,  is  constantly  jeopardized  by  this  inflow 
of  competitors  seeking  city  employment  and  access  to  city  pleasures  and 
educational  opportunities. 

The  charms  of  the  beautiful  modern  cities  of  Germany,  so  attractive 
to  visitors  from  other  parts  of  the  w'orld,  are  equally  attractive  to 
German  country  folk.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  wages  in  German 
city  employments  are  very  low,  and  labor  on  German  farms  inadequate 

126 


for  farm  tasks  at  crop  gathering  time.  Several  hundred  thousand  girls 
are  each  year  brought  in  from  Poland  to  help  gather  the  German 
potato  crop,  and  even  in  Germany,  with  its  66,000,000  people  on  an 
area  three-quarters  as  large  as  Texas  (and  one-fourth  of  this  area 
wooded),  there  are  large  tracts  of  farm  land  which  for  want  of  labor 
are  not  producing  food  up  to  their  capacity.  And  this,  mind  you,  in  a 
country  where  the  people's  most  constant  and  painful  outcry  is  against 
the  ever-rising  cost  of  food. 

The  brains  of  Germany  have  met  the  demand  for  decent  living  con- 
ditions in  their  vast  new  cities  better  than  the  managers  of  cities 
anywhere  else  in  the  world;  but  they  now  realize  that  they  must  carry 
city  advantages  into  the  country  places,  and  today  the  chief  ambition 
of  the  imperial  government  is  to  restore  the  lost  equilibrium  between 
city  and  country  by  modernizing — that  is  to  say,  citifying  as  far  as' 
possible — the  conditions  of  country  life. 


127 


CHAPTEK  XXIII. 
Houston's  Inland  Harbor. 

I  am  asked  by  the  Manufacturers  Eecord  to  tell  its  readers  what  I 
think  of  Houston's  inland  harbor,  after  having  seen  the  gi-eat  inland 
harbors  of  Northern  Europe. 

I  am  now  more  strongly  than  ever  convinced  that  Houston  will  in 
due  time  become  the  sea-and-rail  meeting  point  for  the  seaborne  com- 
merce of  the  Southwest  and  a  large  part  of  the  American  Northwest, 
between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Missouri  river. 

For  all  of  this  vast  area  Houston  brings  tidewater  500  miles  nearer 
than  any  port  on  either  Atlantic  or  Pacific,  and  300  miles  nearer  than 
New  Orleans,  the  nearest  rival  port  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Today  the 
only  deep  water  wharves  in  the  Houston-Galveston  district  are  on  Gal- 
veston Island,  and  on  the  mainland  across  the  bay  at  Texas  City  and 
Bolivar  Point,  and  the  exports  and  imports  through  the  Houston- 
Galveston  sea-and-rail  shipping  district  already,  in  the  comparative 
infancy  of  Southwestern  and  Northwestern  commercial  development, 
make  Galveston  the  second  port  of  the  United  States  in  volume  of 
business — led  only  by  New  York. 

Houston's  proposition  is  that  the  deep  water  haul  of  unbroken  cargoes 
now  terminating  at  Galveston  sliall  be,  in  large  part,  extended  forty-five 
miles  farther  inland.  The  cost  of  water  transportation,  approximately, 
is  only  one-sixth  as  large  as  the  cost  of  rail  transportation.  If  the 
huge  volume  of  traffic  which  now  passes  in  and  out  of  Galveston's 
harbor  at  the  mouth  of  Galveston  bay  can  be  given  forty-five  miles  more 
water  haul,  and  forty-five  miles  less  rail  haul,  the  saving  in  transpor- 
tation cost  to  shippers  and  consumers  will  rapidly  mount  into  the 
millions  and  ultimatolv  into  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars. 

It  is  this  fact  precisely  which  has  caused  all  the  world's  great  harbors 
which  men  have  created  or  improved,  to  be  located  as  far  inland  as 
possible.  The  saving  in  cost  of  transportation  in  a  few  years  pays  the 
cost  of  harbor  construction,  and  thereafter  permanently  sustains  a  great 
city,  manufacturing  and  trading  in  commodities,  around  the  harbor. 

The  two  principal  harbors  of  Northern  Germany  are  those  of  Ham- 
burg and  Bremen.  In  each  instance  the  harbor  is  situated  farther 
inland  than  Houston's  harbor,  and  in  each  case  the  inland  harbor  has 
been  almost  wholly  man-made.  In  each  case  the  harbor-builders  had 
as  a  basis  for  their  work  a  cily  with  rail  terminals  already  established, 
with  a  river  flowing  tlirough  it.  Ilonstoii  li;is  exactly  these  advan- 
tages.    Houston  has  not  yet  so  largo  a  po[)iilal  ion  back  of  if   as  have 

129 


Hamburg  and  Bremen,  but  the  American  Southwest  and  the  American 
Northwest,  regions  which  by  virtue  of  the  short  haul  must  inevitably 
and  forever  patronize  the  Houston-Galveston  sea  gateway,  for  their 
seaborne  commerce,  are  enormously  larger  than  the  region  whose  popu- 
lation supports  the  commerce  which  sustains  Hamburg  and  Bremen. 
Moreover,  these  American  regions  tributary  to  the  Houston-Galveston 
sea  outlet  are  much  richer,  potentially,  and  therefore  are  certain  in  due 
time  to  sustain  a  much  larger  population,  than  the  region  tributary  to 
Hamburg  and  Bremen  ever  can  sustain. 

Hamburg  has  over  a  million  inhabitants,  Bremen  about  a  quarter- 
million.  Both  are  growing  larger  each  year,  and  richer,  through  their 
commerce  chiefly.  Both,  being  city-states,  with  ability  therefore  to 
borrow  money  by  bond  issues  far  in  excess  of  the  like  authority  pos- 
sessed by  a  small  city  like  Houston,  have  expended  enormous  amounts 
of  money  so  procured  in  extending  their  harbors  and  harbor  equip- 
ment. Hamburg  during  the  past  thirty  years  has  invested  $130,000,000 
in  harbor  extensions  and  betterments.  The  warehouses  are  owned  and 
operated  by  a  company,  in  which  the  city-state  of  Hamburg  owns  a 
stock  control,  with  the  privilege — which  it  is  exercising — to  absorb  the 
stock  privately  owned  out  of  its  share  of  the  profits  of  the  enterprise. 
I  neglected  while  there  to  learn  exactly  how  many  millions  the  city- 
state  of  Bremen  has  invested  in  its  harbors  in  the  City  of  Bremen  and 
at  Bremerhaven  a  few  miles  do^n  the  Weser  river ;  but  it  is  significant 
of  the  size  of  these  investments  that  for  one  detail  alone — an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  harbor  system  of  Bremerhaven — the  city-state  issued 
bonds  amounting  to  $132  per  capita  for  its  whole  population. 

Houston,  in  the  Buffalo  bayou  arm  of  Galveston  bay,  has  a  big 
natural  waterway.  Its  size  and  natural  depth  are  indicated  by  this 
fact:  that  government  engineers  and  responsible  private  contractors 
have  engaged  to  give  it  a  25-foot  channel,  with  a  minimum  bottom 
width  of  150  feet  throughout  its  more  than  fifty  miles  length  from 
Houston's  ship-turning  basin  down  to  the  Galveston  jetties,  for  only 
$2,500,000,  and  have  engaged  to  complete  the  work  within  three  years 
from  the  date  of  beginning  in  1912.  Compare  this  with  the  $87,- 
000,000  which  Manchester,  England,  spent  on  its  short  29-foot  canal 
cut  inland  from  Liverpool's  sea-front  harbor,  in  order  to  save  the  cost 
of  rail  transportation  on  the  product  of  Manchester's  mills,  and  you 
will  better  imderstand  how  little  nature  left  for  men  to  do  in  giving 
Houston  a  broad,  deep  water  highway  direct  from  her  great  rail  ter- 
minals down  to  the  open  sea. 

Houston's  inland  harbor,  at  the  head  of  the  channel,  is  as  yet  an 
unsolved  problem — as  to  cost.  The  Federal  government  has  widened 
the  banks  of  Buffalo  bayou,  at  a  point  five  or  six  miles  below  Houston's 
city  center,  to  make  what  we  call  a  ship-turning  basin.  This  basin  is, 
approximately,  a  quarter-mile  long  and  seven  or  eight  hundred  feet 
wide,  with  a  depth  of  twenty  feet.  It  is  big  enough  to  afford  anchor- 
age for  a  small  fleet  of  small  vessels  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade,  but 
it  would  be  a  flight  of  pure  fancy,  or  the  assumption  of  pure  ignor- 

130 


ance,  to  denominate  it  a  harbor  for  seagoing  ships.  Viewed  in  that 
light,  it  is  a  mere  scratch  in  the  ground,  a  tentative  beginning, 
certain,  I  believe,  to  be  abandoned  in  favor  of  a  site  farther 
down  the  bayou  where  the  gigantic  task  of  cutting  out  a  real  inland 
harbor  will  be  easier  and  cheaper.  The  present  turning  basin  will 
fulfill  its  proper  function,  and  repa}'  its  cost,  when,  the  harbor  for 
seagoing  ships  having  been  constructed  lower  down,  this  small  basin 
becomes  a  harborage  for  a  mosquito  fleet  of  coasters,  trafficking  up  and 
down  the  Texas  rivers  and  along  the  Texas  Intercoastal  Canal. 

It  took  me  nearly  four  hours,  in  a  fast  motor  boat,  to  circumnavi- 
gate Hamburg's  inland  harbor,  which  has  been  cut  out  of  a  meadow 
along  the  mighty  Elbe  river.  Houston's  inland  harbor,  if  it  is  to 
effect  for  the  seaborne  commerce  of  the  American  Southwest  and  the 
Xorthwest  a  cost  saving  such  as  Hamburg's  inland  harbor — twenty 
miles  farther  inland  than  Houston's,  by  the  way — eft'ects  for  the  com- 
merce of  a  portion  of  Xorthern  Europe,  must  and  undoubtedly  will  in 
due  time  be  worked  out  on  a  similar  scale. 

Houston's  participation  in  the  task  of  procuring  an  inland  harbor 
has  been  small  down  to  date.  I  mean  participation  by  the  city  gov- 
ernment, in  cash.  Under  Mayor  H.  B.  Rice's  far-seeing  guidance 
during  the  past  eight  years,  the  City  of  Houston  has  borne  most  of  the 
cost  of  promoting  Houston's  harbor  pretensions  in  congress,  and  the 
cit}--  has  voted,  and  expended,  a  bond  issue  of  $250,000  to  build  mu- 
nicipal wharves  in  the  tiny  turning  basin  above  alluded  to,  just  below 
the  city  limits.  There  has  been  some  short-sighted  local  criticism  of 
the  administration  for  failure  to  make  this  $250,000  drop-in-the-bueket 
procure  and  pay  for  big  municipal  wharves.  Anybody  possessing  a 
nickel's  worth  of  practical  information  on  the  subject  of  wharves  of 
the  size  proposed  to  be  built  here,  would  readily  understand  that  this 
$250,000  was  intended  only  to  make  a  beginning,  and  not  to  complete, 
a  work  of  such  magnitude.  If  the  excavations  made  for  municipal 
wharves  in  the  turning  basin  are  later  used,  in  providing  dockage 
for  coasting  vessels,  as  they  probably  will  be,  then  the  city  will  get 
full  value  for  its  money.  If  not,  then  the  $250,000  will  have  to  be 
charged  off  to  profit  and  loss,  under  the  heading,  "Experience  Paid 
For" — and  with  the  reflection  that  we  are  not  the  first  city  builders 
who  have  made  small  mistakes  in  working  out  big  projects. 

The  task  of  making  a  great  harbor  forty  or  fifty  miles  inland  on 
Buffalo  bayou  is  not  a  task  which  the  City  of  Houston,  or  the  County 
of  Harris,  in  which  the  City  of  Houston  is  situated,  can  or  should 
assume.  It  is  a  task  for  the  nation,  because  the  whole  nation  will  be 
a  gainer  by  the  construction  of  such  a  harbor.  The  city-states  of 
Hamburg  and  Bremen  paid  most  of  the  cost  of  building  their  great 
harbors,  because  they  are  states,  free  sovereignties  like  our  own  states, 
subject  to  the  imperial  government  only  in  respect  to  customs  and 
military  armaments,  as  our  states  are  to  our  Federal  government. 
The  imperial  government  has  contributed  over  $10,000,000  to  Ham- 
burg's harl)or  development,  in  payment  for  concession  of  customs 
authority  there. 

131 


Houston  the  city  is  an  incident  in  the  vast  natural  scheme  of  things, 
which  demands,  and  insures,  the  creation  of  the  big  inland  harbor  of 
the  near  future  on  Buffalo  bayou.  This  harbor,  as  Galveston's  rapid 
rise  to  second  place  among  American  seaports  proves,  will  command  a 
yearly  increasing  share  of  the  seaborne  traffic  of  the  United  States. 
Saving  for  a  large  portion  of  that  traffic  five-sixths  of  the  cost  of  its 
transportation  for  forty  to  fifty  miles,  this  inland  harbor,  like  all  of  the 
other  great  inland  harbors  of  the  world,  will  quickly  pay  for  itself  out 
of  that  saving,  and  will  thereafter  be  a  national  asset  for  economy  in 
exporting  and  importing  commodities  exchanged  with  the  other  coun- 
tries of  the  globe. 

In  order  to  induce  prompt  and  decisive  action  by  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment, in  creating  such  an  inland  harbor,  the  Harris  County  navi- 
gation district,  including  the  City  of  Houston,  two  years  ago  voted  a 
bond  issue  of  $1,250,000  and  put  it  up  with  an  equal  amount  appro- 
priated by  the  American  congress,  to  make  the  $2,500,000  needed  to 
complete  the  25-foot  channel  from  Houston  down  to  the  gulf. 

That  was  an  exhibition  of  energy  and  of  ambition  by  Houston  never, 
I  believe,  matched  by  any  other  American  city  of  its  size,  if  indeed  it 
was  ever  matched  by  any  American  city  of  any  size.  It  is  the  plain 
duty  of  the  Federal  government  not  only  to  put  through  the  whole  big 
plan  at  its  own  cost,  and  promptly,  but  to  return  to  the  Harris  county 
navigation  district  its  voluntary  gift  of  $1,250,000  towards  paying  for  a 
strictly  Federal  enterprise,  so  that  this  money  may  be  used  by  the 
local  interests  in  procuring  frontage  on  the  channel  and  in  equipping 
municipal  wharves  as  a  safeguard  against  monopolization  of  the 
wharfage. 

Here  is  where  the  City  of  Houston  will  be  called  upon  to  make  a 
very  large  investment  of  borrowed  money  in  the  years  to  come.  The 
city  will  be  obliged,  if  it  follows  the  wise  example  of  the  German  city- 
states  cited  above,  to  acquire  o^\'Tlership  of  land  on  either  side  of  the 
inland  harbor,  and  on  either  side  of  the  channel  below  the  basiii,  in 
order  to  prevent  monopoly,  and  in  order  through  rentals  to  derive  a 
revenue  with  which  to  take  up  its  bonds  and  defray  its  share  of  the 
cost  of  operation. 

Immediately,  since  no  provision  has  been  made  for  terminals  on  the 
25-foot  channel  that  will  be  ready  for  use  in  June,  1914,  the  City  of 
Houston,  or  a  Houston  harbor  district  to  be  created  by  legislative 
action,  must  make  haste  to  provide  at  its  own  cost  a  small  preliminary 
inland  harbor  with  docks  and  a  belt  line  railway  linking  its  wharves 
with  the  Houston  rail  terminals.  Failure  to  make  such  provision, 
within  the  next  fifteen  months,  will  imperil  the  $2,500,000  invested  in 
the  25-foot  channel  and  seriously  discredit  Houston's  deep  water  pro- 
gram in  the  eyes  of  the  nation. 

The  Houston  city  government  having  met  the  present  emergency,  as 
suggested,  will  thereafter  be  called  upon  to  invest  several  million  dol- 
lars in  extending  its  harbor  equipment,  and  the  Federal  government 

132 


will  be  urged  to  do  its  duty  in  the  premises  by  enlarging  the  small 
emergency  harbor  to  a  basin  several  hundred  acres  in  extent.  The 
Houston  harbor  district  will  probably  have  to  donate  to  the  Federal 
government  the  site  of  this  harbor,  which  will  have  to  be  cut  out  of 
the  meadow  along  the  waterway  just  as  Hamburg  made  most  of  her 
mighty  harbor  on  the  Elbe. 

I  look  for  this  development  to  take  place  naturally,  over  a  long  term 
of  years,  in  response  to  demands  made  by  seaborne  commerce  for  ac- 
commodation in  the  Houston-Galveston  district.  Already  this  com- 
merce has  overflowed  Galveston's  island  equipment  and  has  come  across 
to  the  mainland  in  two  places — Texas  City  and  Bolivar  Point.  The 
steadily  rising  volume  of  this  traffic  ^\'ill  progressively  utilize  Galveston, 
Texas  City,  Bolivar  Point  and  the  Houston  ship  channel  and  inland 
harbor.  The  interests  of  the  whole  of  the  tiny  district  are  identical,  in 
any  large  view  of  the  situation,  just  as  are  those  of  New  York, 
Brooklj-n,  Jersey  City  and  the  other  portions  of  the  vast  shipping  dis- 
trict at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  river.  The  development  of  one 
means  added  prosperity  for  all.  And  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
region  inevitably  tributary  to  this  sea  outlet  is  vastly  larger,  and  in  the 
years  to  come  will  be  even  more  populous  and  more  productive  of  sea- 
borne commerce  than  the  region  now  tributary  to  New  York. 

I  shall  not  be  here  to  say  "I  told  you  so,"  but  nothing  is  more 
certain  in  my  mind  than  that  within  three  or  four  generations  the 
city  which  will  have  grown  up  within  the  Houston-Galveston  district 
will  rival  in  size  and  wealth  the  city  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson. 


133 


CHAPTEE  XXIV. 
An  Appreciation  of  the  Theme. 
(Editorial,  Dallas-Galveston  News.) 

The  series  of  articles  written  by  Mr.  Fi'ank  Putnam  of  Houston  on 
the  organization  and  management  of  public  works  and  governments  of 
European  cities  constitutes,  in  the  opinion  of  the  News,  one  of  the 
most  valuable  contributions  that  has  been  made  in  many  years  to  the 
literature  of  mimicipal  government.  There  is  not  a  city  or  to^vn  in  the 
state  that  is  not  indebted  both  to  Mr.  Putnam  and  to  Houston,  which 
city  bore  the  expenses  of  the  investigation ;  for  although  Mr.  Putnam's 
study  was  made  with  particular  reference  to  the  peculiar  needs  and 
conditions  of  Houston,  necessarily  the  greater  part  of  the  information 
contained  in  them  is  pertinent  to  the  problems  of  all  municipalities, 
and  this  information  has  generously  been  given  to  all.  It  was  a  splen- 
did benefaction  on  the  part  of  Houston. 

Certainly  there  is  no  subject  on  which  we  are  more  in  need  of  in- 
formation and  the  inspiration  that  may  be  expected  of  the  knowledge 
of  what  other  people  have  accomplished.  In  the  general  art  of  govern- 
ment we  indulge  ourselves  in  the  belief  that  we  have  excelled  all 
peoples,  and  that  we  have  brought  about  the  best  government  on  earth 
— a  self-satisfaction  which  may  be  allowed,  subject  to  some  particular 
exceptions.  But  if  we  are  allowed  to  indulge  in  that  self-satisfaction, 
it  only  makes  more  incongruous  another  fact,  equally  admitted,  that  in 
municipal  management  or  government  we  are  the  most  backward. 
There  is  none  so  filled  with  pride  and  the  spirit  of  self-sutficiency  as 
to  extol  our  municipal  governments.  It  is  admitted,  on  the  contrary, 
that  at  that  point  our  efforts  have  been  rewarded  ^vith  but  a  small 
measure  of  success.  It  may  be  that  we  have  little  to  learn  from  the 
Europeans  as  to  tbc  manner  of  conducting  national  and  state  govern- 
ment«,  altliougli  even  in  those  respects  they  can  proljahly  teach  us  more 
than  we  suspect;  but  it  is  certain  that  in  the  matter  of  municipal  man- 
agement they  are  decades  ahead  of  us.  We  have  made  noteworthy 
progress  in  the  last  eight  or  ten  years;  the  standard  of  efficiency  has 
been  raised,  and  particularly  in  Texa.s  cities.  But  there  is  always  a 
dang<'r  of  being  betrayed  into  contentment  by  small  achievements  and 
of  resting  satisfied  with  (■f)n(litions  tliat  are  good  only  in  comparison 
with  older  conditions,  and  that  are  bad  if  they  be  considered  relatively 
to  what  is  possible  and  f('a><il>le.  Tlu;  cireumstances  give  a  peculiar 
tinirliness  to  the  articles  Mr.  Putnam  has  written,  for  they  who  have 
read  them  carefully  must  have  been  fired  with  that  discontent  which 
leads  to  better  things. 

135 


If  there  had  been  no  previous  evidence  of  the  fact  for  us,  Mr.  Put- 
nam's articles  would  have  made  it  too  clear  for  denial  that  the  Germans 
are  pre-eminent  in  the  matter  of  municipal  management,  or  perform- 
ing public  service.  It  would  be  no  tribute  to  their  achievements  what- 
ever to  say  that  they  have  far  surpassed  us;  one  must  make  the  com- 
parison with  the  accomplishments  of  people  who  are  incomparably 
superior  to  us  in  this  respect  if  he  would  give  full  tribute  to  the  skill 
and  art  of  the  Germans  in  municipal  management.  Doubtless  their 
superiority  is  due  primarily  to  racial  traits.  In  them  the  social  sense 
is  probably  more  highly  developed  than  in  any  other  people.  The 
rights  of  society  as  opposed  to  those  of  individuals  have  been  made 
more  paramount  among  them.  Mr.  Putnam  has  made  it  clear  that 
another  reason  of  their  success  in  municipal  management  is  their  free- 
dom from  political  theories  and  formulas.  With  us,  one  often  has 
occasion  to  suspect,  municipal  governments  were  instituted  largely 
for  the  purpose  of  celebrating  and  demonstrating  abstract  theories, 
and  that  we  regard  it  as  of  more  importance  to  vindicate  a  political 
doctrine  than  to  do  a  particular  thing  efficiently. 

^Ye  are  the  most  practical  people  in  our  management  of  business  and 
industry.  No  amoimt  of  theory  would  prevent  our  millers  from  dis- 
carding millstones  and  introducing  steel  rollers.  But  we  stick  tena- 
ciously to  plausible  political  theories  whether  they  work  or  not  in 
practice. 

German  philosophy  with  respect  to  municipal  management,  so  far 
as  the  Germans  seem  to  have  any  philosophy,  is  decidedly  pragmatic. 
The  results  must  justify  the  act,  and  if  they  do,  no  one  seems  to  care 
whether  the  act  is  consistent  with  some  theory  or  not.  Political  con- 
siderations, or  party  considerations,  seem  to  enter  little  if  at  all  into 
municipal  management  in  Germany.  It  is  with  them  strictly  a  bus- 
iness matter;  and  just  as  with  us  a  business  man  employs  and  retains 
men  solely  because  of  their  efficiency  without  inquiring  or  caring  as  to 
his  political  or  religious  preference,  so  the  Germans  give  municipal 
business  over  to  men  who  have  aptitude  and  training  for  it.  With  us 
no  man  is  eligible  for  municipal  service  unless  he  is  a  legal  resident  of 
the  city,  and  if  one  should  propose  to  elect  as  mayor  some  one  who  was 
not  a  resident  of  the  city,  but  who  in  some  other  citv  had  demonstrated 
pre-eminent  fitness  for  the  service,  the  patriotism  of  the  man  making 
that  proposal  would  be  immediately  impeached,  and  he  would  prob- 
ably not  live  long  enough  to  get  another  hearing  from  his  fellow 
citizens.  How  little  the  Germans  are  in  the  hal)it  of  thus  subordinating 
essentials  to  non-essentials  is  shown  by  Mr.  Putnam's  statement  that 
German  cities  frequently  compete  for  the  mayoral  services  of  men  who 
have  demonstrated  superior  fitness. 

One  of  the  recommendations  which  Mr.  Putnam  makes  with  particu- 
lar emphasis,  as  a  result  of  his  study  of  European  cities,  is  that  Hous- 
ton "create  a  city  planning  commission  to  outline  for  adoption  by  the 
city  government  a  general  plan,  providing  for  Houston's  future  growth, 
as  the  German  cities  have  done."     He  declares  that  he  regards  this 

136 


"as  1)}'  long  odds  the  most  vital  of  all  my  recommendations,"  and  he 
adds  the  very  just  observation  that  ''it  would  be  nothing  less  than  pur- 
blind folly  for  the  generation  now  in  control  of  Houston's  destiny  to 
neglect  to  make  provision  for  a  sane,  beautiful,  healthful,  economical 
plan  for  future  city  growth — now,  while  the  first  foundations  for  the 
future  great  city  are  being  laid."  In  one  sense  that  observation  is 
superfluous,  for  even  in  Texas  where  our  largest  cities  have  only  just 
begun  to  grow  we  have  had  the  folly  of  allo\\dng  them  to  develop  with- 
out plan  or  premeditation  impressed  on  us  by  mournful  and  costly 
experience.  Xothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that  if  the  forces  of 
individual  selfishness  are  allowed  to  govern  the  growth  of  cities  un- 
restrained they  will  come  to  be  ugly,  inconvenient  and  unhealthful,  un- 
healthful  physically  and  morally.  Environment  exercises  a  tremen- 
dous influence  on  individual  lives ;  there  are  some  indeed  who  assert 
that  it  is  a  more  potent  force  than  heredity,  and  yet  we  have  done  next 
to  nothing  to  utilize  that  tremendous  force  as  a  means  of  bettering  the 
moral  life  of  our  cities. 


137 


PRESS     O  F 
^e      STANDARD      PRINTING     AND      LITHOGRAPI- 
MOUSTON,     TEXAS 
1913 


my  4    1932 

^^^  ^  "  1932 


'■"^;?^ 


Foi'in  L  9-3 o»(  8, "2-1 


A^.OOO  515  574    2 


0 
r 
0 
0  _ 


9^^^^;^L 

qs£^ 

oG 

^ra 

^ 

ir«^rJlV  Tr^ 

-  A 

PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 

~f 

THIS  BOOK  CARD 

J 

ZB 

^<f/ojnvjjo>' 

^ 

aa 
J 
1 

3 

> 
r 
r 

z 

s 

►"     '"^g^ 

a 

University  Research  Library 

1 
J 
1 
) 
1 
1 
J 
J 
_  J 

^ 
.^  J 

1 

1 

_j 

1 

< 

R 

•H 

TBp-xi" 

bt 

\ 

_  1 
-J 

_  J 

.    I 

1 

> 
c 

X 
O 

- 

:_j 

^aft' 

s 
la 
ts 

19 

ts 

) 

_j 
_  J 
1 

